COLORADO PLAYLIST – BEST OF 2016 PT1

Defining “best of” is not easy.  What makes something the “best of?”

Charles Dickens wrote in A Tale of Two Cities,

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way…”

It was the worst of times for me this year.  All the good of 2016 is overshadowed by my friend and my wife Pattie passing away on Feb 2.  We knew each other for 18 years, and the people who knew her best, her daughters, insist that she was never happier than the years she spent with me in Colorado.  And of unbelievably far less significance, this blog site took a massive hit in visitors and page views as I took time off and changed the name and url …

It was the best of times for me this year.  I adopted my oldest daughter Shannon, Pattie’s biological daughter, as an adult child, and it was completed four days before my wife, and our daughter’s mom passed away.

It was the best of times for me this year.  “Chris K’s Colorado Playlist” (originally The Colorado Sound) celebrated it’s 10th Anniversary on the air.  Thank you to KRFC (88.9 FM Fort Collins) – that was where the show started in April 2006.

Today the show is on statewide… including Aspen, Vail, Telluride, Durango, Pagosa, Steamboat Springs, Colorado Springs, Carbondale, Glenwood Springs, the Wet Mountain Valley and of course along the I25 corridor from Denver to Cheyenne.

It was the best of times for me this year.  A radio station, KJAC, not only adopted my old show name, The Colorado Sound, but hired me on as the Saturday morning 6A-noon on air host, and de factor Colorado music “consultant.”   That station is known as 105.5 The Colorado Sound, and it’s having a big impact on the Northern Front Range music and radio scene.

I can’t thank my friends at 105.5 The Colorado Sound enough for their support in 2016.  They’ve been there through everything I’ve gone through this year.  This year would be much different without their support.

It was the best of times for me this year.  KZYR, The Zephyr in Vail and KCMJ in Colorado Springs joined the Rocky Mountain Music Network LLC network airing both hours of the Colorado Playlist in “prime” times .. The Zephyr on Sunday evenings at 6PM and KCMJ on Saturday afternoons at 3PM.  105.5 The Colorado Sound added the show on Sundays at 10AM (hour 1) and at 10PM (hours 1+2).

It was the best of times for me this year.  Thanks to incredible friends and fans along with Mishawaka Amphitheatre and Oskar Blues Fooderies, I was able to devote myself to promoting Colorado music full time.

It was the best of times for me this year.  I relaunched GOATZ! following my wife’s deathbed wish to both me and our wonderful friend and guitarist Chris Jackowski that we keep playing …and for me to never ever ever put down my guitar again.  That done, we played some incredible shows over the summer…

…including a repeat of our 2015 debut gig at the Mishawaka Amphitheatre and our debut at Bohemian Nights at New West Fest … the first such appearance in my 12 years of being involved with the event.

And, I finally made my way into the studio behind the gentle insistence of my friend Colin Bricker at Mighty Fine Productions in Denver. “Sweet Inspiration” due out in March (?)

Deciding what was the “Best of” as far as recordings are concerned is much more challenging, since beauty or the lack thereof is so personally subjective.  How do we decide?  That coming up in PT2 of the Best of 2016.

… and of far less significance, December’s visitors and page views are the second best in the history of this blog site.

But at least as far as PT 1 goes, it was a pretty bittersweet year.