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MCKNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOUR
Brian McKnight Interview
By Marsha Gosho Oakes
It’s looking like
Brian McKnight may be one of the hardest-working men in soul music today. With CDs selling less than they used to, McKnight has embraced the world of TV, radio and record label independence – hosting a nightly radio show on “42 stations nationwide, all the way down the Eastern seaboard,” featuring on US
Celebrity Apprentice, launching The Brian McKnight TV show in September this year along with a new album released for the first time on his own terms – with no major label.
He just doesn’t stop, I think to myself as I note he’s doing this interview down the phone to me whilst at the driving range in LA.
It’s hard to select a Commissioned album for classic review. Formed at the cusp of the 1980s, the standard of this Gospel super-group’s back catalogue is so high, any one of their pre-1999 albums could be analysed in depth for their timeless appeal.
Nevertheless, 1994’s Matters of the Heart is noteworthy for a few reasons. It was the first album recorded without erstwhile mainstay Keith Staten; he of the operatic style that should have been out of place in a soul outfit but somehow strangely fitted in.
It was the last studio album that Gospel legend Fred Hammond, one of the original and most pre-eminent members of the line up, recorded with his old band. Hammond had already released at least one solo project at this stage-‘I am persuaded’-but joined his soul brothers one more time for his Commissioned swan song.