Carl Knight born 17 April 1930

Carl Knight (April 17, 1930 — September 13, 2019) was an American country singer and songwriter. 

Carl Knight was born a sharecroppers son in an area of Jackson, Mississippi, known as Duttoville. As a young man, he was a Golden Gloves State Champion of Mississippi for 5 years and had a short-lived football career that ended due to a leg injury.  He fell in love with music at an early age while attending St. Joseph Academy, in his home town of Jackson, Mississippi. 

                                    

In 1949, upon graduation, he started singing and performing around his area in clubs, mixing the songs he was writing with the hits of the day and making his living playing music. Information regarding his life in the 50’s and 60’s is scarce but according to Discogs, Carl’s recording career started in 1965 with a single on the Post label. This was the first of many record companies that he used, including New Star (1965) Solid Gold (1968) Spar (1969) Dearborn (1970) before being signed by the legendary Chet Atkins for RCA Records in the mid 70’s ,where he stayed for 11 years. His last single was on the Air label in 1986. 

Carl was also a songwriter and encouraged to move to Nashville by Atkins after seeing him play in a club in Jackson, he had many of his songs recorded by such artists as Loretta Lynn, Jerry Lee Lewis, Mel Tillis, Del Reeves, Charlie Pride, Cal Smith, to name but a few of his 48 cuts. Carl was the voice of beloved anti-bullying Super Hero, "Hockey Todd." Carl was also in a movie with Burt Reynolds and Ned Beatty called "WW and the Dixie Dance Kings" in 1976 although unaccredited. 

Carl was inducted into the Mississippi Hall of Fame in 2010 as a songwriter and was given the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 8th Annual Nashville Songwriter's Festival.

He passed away on September 13, 2019 at his residence in Hendersonville, Tennessee at the age of 89. 

(Scant info edited from Legacy Praguefrank & bronsonmusic)