River Knight are Stone River on vocals and Darren Knight on guitar and vocals. Their album “Grow” originally started as a form of therapy/support after Darren’s wife sadly passed away. The first two songs written were Heaven’s Door and Sense out of Crisis, followed by the album opener She Came Round. As they continued to rehearse, they continued to write, and came to the realisation that they were on to something with the songs that were coming out. They knew they had to record their new songs, but then Covid happened.
A long-time friend of theirs, Jeremy, had set up a studio at his home (where coincidentally Darren moved into) and using that along with the recording equipment at Stone’s house they were able to record their debut album, Grow, throughout the 2020 lockdown. When lockdown eased they were able to invite guests to come in and play on the album, so they have Ryan Glover (ex-Kasabian) hitting the skins on a couple of tracks, Ralph Walling (60th Parallel) plays harmonica on one song and lead guitar on another, a new young artist named Georgie contributes some vocals on two tracks, and they have multiple guests on the final song, a bit of a party anthem, including Big Daddy Rap Beast.
As you can imagine the album is a mesh of various styles and genres, but all with the acoustic guitar vocal group base, ranging from folk to indie to rock to jazz to pop to americana to rap. It is apparent that people don’t realise just how varied the album is. It is a journey that starts true to River Knight, slowly builds and swells towards the middle, then brings it all back down again, but without losing any power nor impact.
The album means a hell of a lot, as it is basically a tribute to a beautiful young woman who was taken too soon. It is essentially the story being at your lowest ebb and returning to the light through love and support.
