Creating Americana music
The Lofty Pines trio consists of Casey Lewis (left), Darren Thornberry (middle), and Ben Knighten (right).
As a kid, Ben Knighten took piano lessons for a few years, which he considers his first true musical experience. In middle school, he started playing drums, and in high school, he got an acoustic guitar, learning songs on it through high school and college. After his first experimentations with songwriting, he put more time and energy into developing his songwriting and performance skills at open mics and coffee shop gigs. After a while, he realized he wanted to collaborate musically with others and started learning the mandolin, a more collaborative instrument, in response.
Knighten and fellow musician Darren Thornberry have been connected for over a decade now. Between 2010 and 2015, Thornberry, who has also played in many other bands in the past (including heavier bands) and written songs for most of his life, reviewed local musicians through Stubborn Sounds. Knighten reached out as a musician, and the two started playing together as a duo and have become close friends. Around two years ago, they put out a Craigslist ad for a string player to round out their sound. Carey Lewis, who has been a violin player from a very young age and went to college for violin performance, responded to the call. He had already planned to move to Colorado from Texas, so the timing was perfect. With the sound rounded out and the trio cemented, The Lofty Pines was born.
Thornberry provides guitar and vocals, Lewis provides fiddle and mandolin, and Knighten provides guitar, vocals, and mandolin. Knighten primarily writes the songs for the group (Thornberry writes songs for the six-piece Mercy Club, which includes himself and Knighten), but the whole trio works on arrangements. Knighten’s first experience in songwriting involved experimenting with various chord progressions on the guitar and hearing matching melodies and potential lyric ideas in his head. This cemented his process of starting with a chord progression that feels unique to him, creating a melody around it, and finishing with the lyrics. He describes the music of The Lofty Pines as Americana with influences of bluegrass and newer acoustic music, comparing it to the sounds of groups like Nickel Creek and Watchhouse (formerly Mandolin Orange).
Knighten enjoys the challenge of songwriting and the process of bringing a song to life with others, sometimes in a completely different way than he originally conceived it. He loves when moments strike that feel just right for that particular song, like lyrics that are open to interpretation and long with melodies that fit with those lyrics. He loves how supportive friends and family have been over the years, but also with the fanbase they’ve built that will attend shows just to hear The Lofty Pines. He hopes that their music allows the audience to pause and listen to something that, especially for them, is refreshing, honest, and an exploration of aspects of life that aren’t often talked about openly.
The Lofty Pines will be performing at both Very Nice Brewing Company locations very soon. The first show takes place at the Nederland location, 20 E. Lakeview Drive #112 in the Caribou Village Shopping Center, on Friday, November 15, 2024, at 6 p.m. The second show takes place at the Gilpin County location, 180 Jankowski Drive in Black Hawk, on Saturday, December 14 at 5 p.m.
You can visit the trio's website at theloftypines.com for more information about them. You can also find the trio's debut album Light at the Door, solo material from both Ben Knighten and Darren Thornberry, and other group material from Knighten and Thornberry as part of Mercy Club on streaming and YouTube. Thornberry’s music reviews and recommendations, as well as information about his music, are still available at stubbornsounds.wordpress.com (although the archives only go back to 2013).
