Jordan Knight comes around the block again
Boston Globe
Boston, Mass.
Apr 9, 1999
Authors: Steve Morse, Globe Staff
Knight, who lives in Milton, telephoned this week from San Francisco -- the latest stop on a hectic promo tour to remind fans that he was the lead singer of the New Kids and has made a "more mature" solo album. (It was coproduced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis -- the architects behind Janet Jackson's biggest hits -- and by Robin Thicke, whose dad is TV star Alan Thicke of "Growing Pains.")
"The schedule I have now does remind me of the New Kids," says Knight. "But the girls who were 14 are now 25."
The New Kids ruled in the late '80s -- long before the Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, or 'N Sync (for whom Knight will open two sold-out shows at the Tweeter Center in Mansfield July 24 and 25). But Knight admits "the wave crested" in 1994 with the final Kids disc, "Face the Music," which quickly hit the cut-out bins and caused him to take some time off.
"I signed a {solo} contract in 1995, but it took a long time to find people that really had good chemistry with me -- one being Robin Thicke, the other Jimmy Jam," says Knight, now 28. "We were able to hang out and listen to records we liked and really connect on that level."
To keep in tune, Knight played occasional solo gigs, but hardly anyone knew about them. He would show up unannounced at the now- defunct Diamond Jim's Piano Bar in the Hotel Lenox in the Back Bay and sing Elton John songs under a fake name.
"I wore a baseball hat and some glasses that looked like prescription glasses but weren't," Knight says. "I was just trying to stay low-key. It was an older crowd, too, so they didn't know who the heck I was."
For the most part, Knight's new album is a welcome step beyond the New Kids. "Give It to Me," while one of the weaker tracks, is a sexy, come-hither pop tune with a calliope-sounding coda recalling a "Sgt. Pepper's" tune (no surprise, since Knight is a huge Beatles fan). A hip-hoppy remix of the song is also on the CD.
But most of the record offers grown-up sounding ballads such as "Broken by You," "Never Take the Place" (a Prince song slowed down to striking effect), and the poignant "Separate Ways." Knight always had singing ability that wasn't tapped in the lighter New Kids fare but is more apparent now.
"I love slow songs and pretty melodies -- and that's a lot of what's on here," he says. "I didn't want to go totally left and try to be something that I wasn't, just because `Oh, I'm not cool now because I was a New Kid.' I didn't want to fall into that trap. People know when you're not being genuine."
Knight also used a number of Boston folks on the album, including guitarist Bobby Keyes (a versatile player who has worked for Jerry Lee Lewis and Sleepy LaBeef), guitarist Tyrone Chase, and production assistant Miguel Pessoa.
The funkiest tune is "A Different Party," which samples a guitar riff from Sugarloaf's 1970 hit "Green-Eyed Lady." Says Knight: "It was Jimmy Jam's idea. I didn't know it was a sample. The {Sugarloaf song} was before my time. I just thought it sounded like something Beck would do, like surfer music. But I said, `Hey, this is cool. Let's go with it.' "
Rockapella in town: Admit it, you've heard the Folger's TV commercial in which Rockapella sings, "The best part of waking up is Folger's in your cup." It's a ubiquitous ad that has given new life to Rockapella, the vocal group (the "in" term as opposed to a cappella group) that also sang for five seasons on the "Where Is Carmen Sandiego" show in the early '90s.
Rockapella, which headlines the Somerville Theatre tonight, has come a long way from the late '80s when it sang in the streets of New York. Back then, coins were thrown in a hat by passersby, who shortly started throwing in business cards. The momentum multiplied, and Rockapella has now made seven albums in Japan and has issued one very lively US release, "Don't Tell Me You Do," on J-Bird Records.
"There are real pockets of popularity for a cappella. San Francisco and Boston are two of them. A lot of it starts collegiately," says Scott Leonard, adding that Rockapella mostly evolved from a group at Brown University in Providence. "A cappella is at a high point right now."
"I was a French horn player who went to Juilliard," adds Rockapella singer Barry Carl. "But the fun quotient is much higher doing this."
Look for a lot of original songs tonight, but Rockapella could also swing into cover versions of Otis Redding's "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" the Hollies' "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress," and "16 Tons" by Tennessee Ernie Ford.
Ticket update: At Tweeter Center in Mansfield: Natalie Merchant June 4, on sale Monday at 10 a.m. Steve Miller Band and George Thorogood & the Destroyers July 31, on sale Sunday at noon. The Allman Brothers Band Aug. 20, on sale today at 10 a.m. Bob Dylan and Paul Simon (with tix up to $115) July 22-23, on sale tomorrow at 10 a.m.
Other venues: Adrian Legg at Berklee Performance Center April 24, on sale now. Blondie at the Orpheum May 15, on sale today at 11 a.m. Hole and Imperial Teen at the Orpheum May 16, on sale today at noon. All of the shows are through Ticketmaster.
Casino Ballroom: The 100th season of the 2,000-capacity Casino Ballroom in Hampton Beach, N.H., is about to start. Some shows so far: May 15, Fuel; June 2, Bela Fleck; June 12, Sammy Hagar; June 17, Buddy Guy/Jimmie Vaughan/Shemekia Copeland; June 28, Brian Setzer; July 9, Marc Chesnutt; July 14, Little Feat/Neville Brothers; July 15, George Carlin; July 18, Joey McIntyre; July 28, KC and the Sunshine Band; July 31, Weird Al Yankovic; Aug. 14, Carrot Top; Aug. 21, John Valby; Aug. 28, Eddie Money; Sept. 17, Artie Shaw; and Sept. 23, Sammy Kershaw. Tickets on sale now at the Casino box office, Ticketmaster outlets (or www.ticketmaster.com), and at 603-929-4100.
Bits and Pieces: New Web site www.radioboston.com, slated to be fully operational Thursday, will play all-Boston original music 24 hours a day. . . . Sleater-Kinney's rescheduled date at the Middle East is June 1. . . . Strangefolk at Somerville Theatre April 21-22 . . . Joyce Linehan, formerly with Sub Pop Records, is the new PR director at the South Shore Music Circus. . . . Top German trance DJ Paul Van Dyk will be spinning live on WBCN-FM (104.1) tomorrow 8-9 p.m. and will spin at Karma Club later that evening. . . . WBCN's "Naked Too" CD has topped $100,000 in sales, with a promised $35,000 to be shared by Stop Handgun Violence, Berklee City Music, and the Walden Woods Project -- a surprise, since 'BCN and Walden's Don Henley were in a verbal war a few years ago. . . . Longtime Grateful Dead aide de camp Dennis McNally speaks at Providence College tonight at 7:30. . . . The premiere of a new documentary about Bob Blue, an esteemed former Wellesley elementary school tea! cher and songwriter, is Sunday at 2 p.m. at Wellesley High School. It includes a Pete Seeger interview tribute. . . .
Tonight: Upper Crust and Caged Heat rock the new Milky Way Lounge and Lanes in Jamaica Plain, Paved Country countrifies Toad, Slide headlines the Lizard Lounge (with Rose Polenzani and Natalie Flannagan opening) and Young Neal & the Vipers at the Sea Note in Hull . . . Tomorrow: Robin Right's Tammy Wynette tribute at Lowell Memorial Auditorium, the Slip, and Miracle Orchestra at the Middle East, Popgun, and Slept at T.T. the Bear's, and the Ray Corvair Trio, Ramona Silver, and Scarlet Haven at the Attic in Newton. SOUND CHOICE
Festive jam band moe sets a party tone at Avalon tonight in a 7 p.m. show. The resurrected Expanding Man plays a rare gig at Bill's Bar tonight with the Sterlings. A mixed bag of bedlam is the norm at the Middle East tonight with Four Piece Suit, the Strangemen, the Sugar Twins, and Silver Stars and the Jubilee Angels, with the one- and-only MC Brother Cleve presiding. Tomorrow gets rowdy with Canine and Superzero at Bill's Bar. And Monday sees a benefit for the Mass. Adoption Resource Exchange at the Green Street Grill with Jeff Mellin and the Midnight Cowboys, Weeping in Fits and Starts, Paula Kelley (of Boy Wonder), the Magdalenes, and Purple Flower Gang.
