Lee Knight - an extraordinary talent

Lee Knight is an outstanding singer, storyteller, song collector, teacher of folklore, folk life, and folk music of North America and the Southern Appalachians, and a student of Cherokee history and culture. Born in the Adirondack mountains of upstate New York, he lives in North Carolina. Knight has studied the folk cultures of the southern Appalachians, the Adirondacks, and the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia, learning his repertoire by visiting with local residents and musicians who have maintained their traditions. Knight has collected songs and stories from both close to home and a world away, including the Adirondacks, the southern Appalachians, Canada, Scotland, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Columbia and Peru. He plays the five-string banjo, fretless five-string banjo, Appalachian dulcimer, Cherokee flute, Cherokee rattle, Cherokee water drum, guitar, and mouth bow. He performs regularly at concerts, folk festivals and camps, telling stories, singing unaccompanied ballads, and calling dances. He has performed with Pete Seeger, Jean Ritchie, Bill Monroe, Alan Lomax, and many others. He appeared at Carnegie Hall in April 2006, continuing his collaboration with Wu Man. His warmth, humor, depth of knowledge of folk cultures, and dynamic performing style make it a real treat to have Lee working with our Road Scholar programs.