Like its predecessor, the 12 songs on Chris Knight’s Trailer II were recorded in the summer of 1996 inside of his sweltering singlewide in a field just outside of Slaughters, Kentucky (population 238, including Chris).

Knight, then an unknown singer/songwriter who was still months away from recording his major label debut album, had begrudgingly agreed to record a batch of solo acoustic tracks on his own terms. For a week, Knight, along with producer Frank Liddell and engineer Joe Hayden, crowded around two microphones and laid down 30 of Knight’s original songs on ADAT tape. Over the next 10 years, the stark and stunning recordings—via a combination of bootlegs, leaks and legend—would become one of the most talked-about sessions of the decade.

Knight is performing some of those songs on his new tour, which stops in Roanoke at Kirk Avenue Music Hall, Wednesday, Nov. 18. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are $20.

Trailer II is far more than just a sequel to The Trailer Tapes. Where the majority of the first album were songs that had never appeared on any subsequent Knight disc, Trailer II features original versions of what would become many of Knight’s most popular tracks. Songs like “It Ain’t Easy Being Me,” “Love And A .45,” “Send A Boat,” and “The River’s Own” crackle with the unprocessed honesty of a young singer/songwriter finding—and delivering—his own startling voice.

“When I first heard Chris at a songwriter’s night at The Bluebird Cafe,” remembers Liddell, “I thought I was hearing John Prine and Steve Earle rolled into one. Here was this coalmine inspector from rural Kentucky who was writing these incredible songs. I started to spend time with him in his hometown, getting to know the people and places where his music was coming from. When I signed him to Decca Records, I knew his life was going to change forever.” Liddell said.