Colorado Music Hall of Fame inductee Chris Daniels plays Rock & Rails

It's not every day that a double billing from the Colorado Music Hall of Fame graces the Rock & Rails stage. But that's what audiences will get on Thursday when Chris Daniels and the Kings with Freddi Gowdy performs. Daniels talked to us about his music, his band's history, the time a movie featuring him and his band was shot at Rock & Rails, and how he approaches his performances.

Q: So how are you feeling about the upcoming concert?

CD: It's one of our favorite concerts of the entire year. The people who come, they love the music so much. They listen to solos, they applaud, they dance. There's no holding them back.

Q: What are some of your favorite stories from playing here?

CD: Oh boy. That's a question. Every one has been so different. One year when we were playing, there was a movie company that was filming a movie that eventually wound up distributed nationally. They used a bunch of footage of us playing Rock and Rails.

Q: Wow. What movie?

CD: It was called Forty Years in the Making: The Magic Music Movie. It was made by Lee Aronshon of The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men. It won best documentary musical documentary award at the Boulder International Film Festival

Q: So, I don't often get to talk to many Colorado Music Hall of Fame members and I have to ask, what was it like to receive that honor?

CD: It was wonderful. And I appreciate the other musicians there. I was inducted in 2013, with Judy Collins. Freddi Gowdy was inducted in 2019 along with Tommy Bolin.

Q: Talk a little about the musical history of the band. How did you get to our stage and stages like ours?

CD: Well, the Kings have been together for 38 years. We started back when there was a telephone booth on each corner. We started in Boulder County at The Blue Note and since then we've done twenty or twenty-one albums and about the same number of European tours, and it's always been a horn band, with that old horn band sound. Like Blood Sweat & Tears, Chicago, Tower of Power.

Q: How has the group changed through the years?

CD: We've had a lot of changes. For example, the trumpet player and I've been playing together, now for twenty-five years, maybe twenty-eight years. The guitar player and I have played together since nineteen-ninety something. You know, thirty years and we've known each other for fifty years. His name is Bones.

Q: What's it like for you now, to be on stage together?

CD: What I'm thinking about as I'm playing is how to take the audience to the next level of whatever they're experiencing. And I don't usually use a playlist. The guys in the band know what song I'm going to start, usually by a guitar chord I strum.

Maybe it's a little like a football team or a hockey team. There's a certain number of plays that you've got. I think they call it in sports 'audibles.' You just say, 'We're going to go in a different direction.' And you know, it's kind of funny when we do use the setlist. The guys from the band make a bet on how quickly I will deviate.

Q: Is there anything unique that audiences can expect Thursday night?

CD: Everyone should know that opening the show is Mark Oblinger and Linda Lawson. And one of the most wonderful things is Mark asked me to sit in and play with him.

I toured with him and to New York City and lots of different places, just playing guitar with him and I love doing that, and he's an incredible songwriter.

Q: Do you think he'll come back on with you guys later?

CD: I sure hope so.

Q: That's great to look forward to. Thanks again for talking to us and have fun Thursday night.

CD: Can't wait.