Jennifer Knapp's New Chapter

(Photo : Graylin Records)
Jennifer KnappWhen singer/songwriter Jennifer Knapp hit the national stage in 1998, she swept the field. Her debut release spent 80 weeks within the Top 25 on the Billboard charts. Four years, four Doves and two Grammy nods later, she disappeared from the public eye and the music arena.

Seven years went by before anything was heard from the Jennifer Knapp camp. In September of 2009, she reappeared, sharing with fans that new music was on its way. A single released in April of 2010, followed by a new album in May called Letting Go. In between the two came the bombshell announcement that Jennifer had spent the previous eight years in a lesbian relationship.The following year, she formed Inside Out Faith in order to "engage the issue of LGBT inclusion and affirmation in religious communities." Inside Out events find her singing and sharing her story while encouraging others to come out and break the "cone of silence" that those in the LGBT community face in faith circles.

Living life on her own terms is what Jennifer Knapp is doing now and that includes her music. She's in the process of crowd-funding a new album and will be spending a lot of time in the studio, recording and producing it. Calling this time a "new chapter" in her career, she says that the music was all written for raw truth's sake, not radio or one genre's expectations. "You all have been very supportive of the stripped-down sound of just my vocals and acoustic at my live shows, and that’s the direction I want to go in for this album," she explained. "I’m hoping to revisit my beginnings when I was listening to Patty Griffin, Tracy Chapman, and old Cowboy Junkies tunes— open and honest songwriting with room to breathe."

With a little over two months left until the release, fans can still get in with pledges that range from $10 to $5000 for some really creative swag that runs from a download of the CD to her complete discography to a studio visit or executive producer credits.