Chris Knox Post-stroke Update

Famed Kiwi rocker, of the Tall Dwarfs (pictured above), continues to improve following a stroke last month.

By Fred Mills

You've undoubtedly heard that legendary New Zealand musician and Tall Dwarfs co-founder Chris Knox suffered a stroke on June 11 in Auckland. It affected his speech, language and right side of his body. Since then, the 56-year old musician's progress has been monitored in the media and signs have generally been positive.

What's more, folks have been lining up to pay their respects in a material way. On Monday night, MGMT did a deejay set in New Zealand as a benefit for Knox (the reunited Tall Dwarfs had been slated to open for MGMT at three concerts), and they additionally have made an additional donation in the form of the fee he would have earned had the Dwarfs performed.

Then in the works is a tribute album, to be titled, ahem, Stroke, featuring Jeff Mangum, Superchunk, the Magnetic Fields, AC Newman, Will Oldham, Guided by Voices, the Mountain Goats, Jay Reatard, Yo La Tengo, Bill Callahan, Lambchop, the Clean's David Kilgour, Lou Barlow and possibly others.

Knox fans can keep up on his recovery via a blog that's been established by his family. According to the most recent posting, "Chris has had a meeting with his therapy team today. He's getting more words back & can now stand unassisted albeit very briefly. Chris is in a good mood and his current favourite gags are pretending to be either catatonic or bursting into tears - still the attention seeker! He's also getting quite good at drawing with his left hand."

Which is fantastic news. Here's hoping Knox continues making progress - the man's given us tons of memorable music over the years and we want to his pick up where he left off as soon as possible.