Crimson and Gold Connection; Jennifer Knapp

Welcome to Crimson and Gold Connection, keeping you connected with the people and current events at Pittsburgh State University. This is the Crimson and Gold Connection on 89.9 KRPS. Taking place for one night only, Saturday, February 22nd, Pittsburgh State alum, Jennifer Natt returns to Southeast Kansas to perform at the Bicknell Family Center for the Arts. I spoke with Jennifer from her home in Nashville over Skype earlier this week. I want to let first our listeners know that you're from Southeast Kansas originally. You attended and graduated from Pittsburgh State. Go ahead. Yeah, no. I grew up in Chinute and after I graduated high school at Chinute High School, I chucked it over to Pittsburgh and went to school at Pitt State University. I got a music scholarship there, which I was pretty excited about. And yeah, things just kind of went on from there. You released your first album at the age of 20? I'll believe you on that. That's what I found. I did my first couple of recordings in the area. I did one of my first recordings on a real tape in... I want to say scam and Kansas.

So just down the road, I was working with a friend of mine, Byron Funk, and he talked me into it. I didn't know what in the world I was doing. And we did a little cassette, and that did really well. I was still in college at the time. And that turned into... We went on and recorded another record in Pittsburgh. I can't remember where I recorded it at, but... So then, yeah, I made my first CD while I was in Newland, Pittsburgh. And I'm doing a show at the Memorial Auditorium downtown as a CD release party, which is really cool. I think, if my memory serves me right, that was the last time I actually played in the area. So I'm super excited to get back. Perfect segue to... So what's it like when you do come back to Pittsburgh and perform at the Bicknell Family Center for the Arts? I have not said this enough, but I've not stopped being nervous about it.

I've performed a lot of places. And it's actually really nice, like, after doing this for over 20 years to get some butterflies in your stomach about something that could just be routine. I'm super excited about it and nervous, but the good kind of nerves where I'm just... It means a lot to me to be able to come back and play and to be able to... I have a lot of... You know, I get to Pittsburgh now and again, my mom still lives in Fort Scott. So I get down to the area, you know, at least a couple times a year. Drive down to Pittsburgh and get Starbucks and drive around town and just see how things are traveling. But it's been a lot... You know, most of the time it's pretty stealth. Nobody really knows that I'm there. So when the Bicknell Center went up, I got really excited about doing that. And it was... I got to admit, it was like a bucket list kind of thing. I was super excited to see the Fine Arts Center go up and I wanted to do it. And then I asked in a couple of years later, I'm doing it.

And I'm like, oh my gosh, be careful what you ask for. But it means a lot to me to be able to be on campus and to celebrate one of the places where I got my start. And also, you know, to... I don't know. I don't want to make it sound arrogant. But it really means a lot to me to be able to give back to my community. And to not just... I think sometimes when you... Particularly because I come from a small town, I think one of the things sometimes it feels like is when you have success in some field that draws you away from that. And there's this kind of nagging thing in the back of my mind that always makes me think that, oh, you're better than this place. And I've never really felt that way. I've always been really grateful for the people that I still love that have this, you know, have a real salt to the earth kind of experience and their mentorship and their roles that they've been in my life. And so to be able to come back home and play just even simply just so my grandma can come to see, you know, what I do for a living. It really means a lot.

I sent you and I've been emailing back and forth to book this interview. I've been listening to similar songs and one thing, or at least one aspect being unfamiliar with your work as it's been coming out, I noticed that the earlier stuff had a more popular sound to it and the older you got, the songs sounded more mature and deeper. So I was wondering if you still play your early songs and if so, how does it feel to play them now at a very different place in your life? That's a good question. Yeah, I think there's no doubt that, you know, I've definitely aged. I think part like as a songwriter, sometimes I just go, I don't want to work that hard. Like it's so physical what I do. Particularly when I'm doing a lot of solo acoustic work and driving the live performance is just me and my acoustic. And then I go back and I still play, I mean the short answer is I still play some of my old stuff. I don't play all of it, you know, my body's changed over time as well. So there's a physical component to it, but yeah, every once in a while, play one of those rock songs for my youth and then, you know, bend over and hold my knees for a minute and go, gosh, I had no idea that I would have to have that kind of energy, you know, in my middle age.

But it's a fun thing to be able to keep on playing them and there's a big difference as well too between the what I call career 1.0 and career 2.0 where in the early days, a lot of my music was very much focused on the faith conversation. Very pointed in the specific about the religious experience that I was having and now I think as well, like one of the things that showed up in my music as I think there's still that, you know, I still tap into spiritual kind of thoughts that are there, but I'm not as pointed with it. It's a lot more subversive and I don't know the things that also concern my life are like, I guess the phrase is adulting. You know, there's there are things about love that really means something to me in a different way that that it meant to me when I was 20 years old and the cost of losing love seems so much more severe rather than kind of seeking it. But I think that's been a common thread throughout my music, but it has changed and it's in its orientation, I suppose.

Next, I wanted to talk a little bit about your faith, you were nominated for a Grammy in 2000 and then you won two double awards the year before 1999, new artist of the year in the rock song of the year. I was wondering how your faith has changed since coming out and how it's impacted your songwriting. Yeah, I think somewhat in my youth, like definitely my experience was trying to to be the best Christian that I could be and that was the work, the labor every single day. And what does that look like in doing kind of the mechanical things? I think I felt passionately about my faith and there was a lot of enthusiasm for me to participate in a real genuine curiosity about God. And I still have that curiosity today, but I'm less the irony is I'm less concerned about what it looks like and what I appear to be working like because I'm busy doing other work. I've got other issues rather than what I mean, I guess a way to say it is like I'm worried less about the way that I'm dressed and being functional and getting on with the task and being dressed for the work that I need to do in any given day.

It's not really the most glamorous of metaphors, but I mean, I just finished my masters of theological studies at Vanderbilt University over the last couple of years. And that's been an incredibly, you know, obviously that still is a key to how curious I am about God and I think even more I'm interested in being able to not just write shiny poetry, but like the kind of poetry that really says something truthful. And it takes a lot more digging and a lot more depth and it's it's a lot harder work actually in a strange way, but I don't want to shy away from even the earlier work that I did because it to me, it wasn't a femoral at the time. It's stood the test and sustained me throughout this time, but yeah, it's I'm actually these days, even though I still in terms of faith identify as a Christian, I'm less concerned about having specifically Christian conversations and when I get into that zone, about how we all kind of have conceptions of God and how we travel with that.

She will be performing for one night only, Saturday, February 22nd at the Bicknell Family Center for the Arts. You can hear the full interview with Jennifer and get ticket information at our news blog, krpsnews.com. Join us for Crimson and Gold Connection Wednesdays at 850 and Fridays at 350.