<b><font size=4>This Sound never stops playing</font></b>
Since the team’s inception in 1978, there’s never been a player more qualified to wear the Nashville Sounds uniform than Ryan Knox.
After all, the team’s nickname is a tip of the hat to the city’s other entertainment industry. And Knox, an outfielder by day and lead guitarist by night, embodies both the sport he plays and the town he’s instantly fallen in love with.
From February through September, Knox chases one of his dreams — becoming a major league baseball player. He’s in his seventh year of playing in the minors, since being drafted in 1999.
The rest of the year, he’s the lead guitarist in a five-piece alternative rock band called Highway J, which makes its home in central Illinois. The group is set to work on its second full-length record, which it hopes could possibly lead to an eventual record deal.
Knox pursues both dreams with equal passion.
“The greatest feeling I’ve ever had in my life is hitting a big league home run in a spring training game,” Knox said. “But playing live can sometimes be like three hours of that.”
Knox says he feels right at home in Nashville. It’s unsurprising coming from a player who keeps his guitar handy in the Sounds locker room.
“The city is the best I’ve lived in yet,” Knox said. “It’s a lot more diverse than I thought. You’ve got the great music scene and the honky-tonks on Broadway.”
Knox’s big league prospects may seem to be a bit of a long shot. He’s only hitting .235 for the season. But that doesn’t discourage a player who was drafted in round No. 24 out of Illinois State. He’s made his way through Milwaukee’s minor league system and stands at the last rung on the ladder before a call-up to the majors.
He describes himself as a hard-working blue-collar player, whose forte is getting on base, moving runners and stealing bases. In each of his first six years in the minors, Knox has swiped at least 20 bags.
Pursuit of making it onto the Brewers’ big league roster has taken time away from Highway J. The band, whose members each have full-time jobs of their own, formed three years ago. The name comes from a country Wisconsin road on which they got lost two separate occasions.
Highway J’s Radiohead influence comes across clearly on the band’s 2002 full-length album and on its work-in-progress demo, which has six songs under its belt. Driven by riffs from Knox’s guitar work, the quintet begins work as soon as baseball season ends. Knox says although booking has been going well, the group usually is just getting its momentum going by the time spring comes and the guitarist must go back to the diamond.
“We gather a bunch of steam, we always get rollin’ and then I gotta go to spring training,” Knox said.
Knox, who turns 28 on Tuesday, hesitates when asked which dream comes first — a big league call-up or a major label record deal.
“Nowadays I’m hitting .230, so record deal sounds pretty good,” Knox joked, before turning serious. “I like to think I could do both. If I had to pick I’d say baseball, because that means I did it on my own.”
And even while pursuing baseball fulltime during the summer, Knox keeps music close to his heart. His guitar rarely leaves his side and his iPod consistently blares Radiohead hits. Recently, he’s gotten into live music DVDs and has been enthralled with U2’s “Rattle and Hum.”
“My dad’s guitar was the first one I ever played,” Knox said. “It only had three strings. It sounds strange to say, but I felt very spiritual playing, even as a third-grader. It is one of the things I was meant to do.”
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While following his dreams of playing professional baseball, Sounds outfielder Ryan Knox also makes time for his band, where he plays lead guitar.