Chris K & Friends, aka GOATZ!, is less a band than a barroom congregation, gathering somewhere between back-porch confession and hard-earned truth. At its center is Chris K, a Western Colorado songwriter whose work threads the needle between old-school country storytelling and the restless conscience of Americana’s best modern voices.
Drawing from the lineage of writers like Townes, Guy Clark, and Merle Haggard without imitating them, Chris builds songs that feel lived-in. His setlists drift easily from outlaw staples and dusty road anthems to deeply personal originals that land with unexpected weight. There’s no sharp line between the covers and the originals—they speak the same language: hard miles, flawed people, and the kind of honesty that doesn’t ask permission.
That honesty defines Chris K’s writing. In “I Miss My Mind the Most,” he turns aging and memory into something both intimate and universal, resisting sentimentality in favor of stark self-awareness. In “Behind Stone Walls,” he widens the lens, contrasting comfort and suffering with a journalist’s eye and a preacher’s cadence. And in “Don’t Tell Me,” he steps directly into the moral tension of modern America, confronting the human cost behind headlines with imagery that’s difficult to shake.
Onstage, Chris K & Friends carry that same balance—part loose, rootsy collaboration, part deliberate storytelling vehicle. The “Friends” are fluid by design, creating a sound that can shift from stripped-down acoustic to full-band grit without losing its center. It’s music that belongs equally in listening rooms, roadside bars, and community spaces where songs still matter.
GOATZ may not take itself too seriously—but the songs do. And that’s the point.
SMALL BIO
Chris K is a third-generation musician whose roots run from Tin Pan Alley to modern Americana. A veteran of Colorado radio and touring bands, he’s played everything from English pubs to some of Colorado’s biggest venue and festival stages, appearing in direct support for legends like Guy Clark, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Blackhawk, and Jim Lauderdale. Drawing on influences from classic country and country-rock to modern Americana, Chris K’s GOATZ! delivers a Rocky Mountain inspired mix of heartfelt originals and timeless covers.
UPCOMING APPEARANCES
FRIDAY MAY 22 – Roots Music Project Boulder, CO
SATURDAY JUNE 27 – Bacon & Bourbon Festival, Keystone, CO
PAST SHOWS (2025-2026)
- 17th (2025) Dacono Music & Spirits Festival
- 48th (2025) Cedaredge Applefest
- 17th (2025), 18th (2026) Fort Collins Music Experiment/FoCOMX
- Fruita Downtown Concert Series (June, 2025)
- Mesa Theater, Grand Junction (Dec, 2024)
- Oskar Blues Homemade Liquids and Solids, Longmont CO (Aug 2025)
- Palisade Brewing Company (Aug, Oct 2025)
- Restoration Vineyards, Palisade CO (July 2025)
- Warehouse2565, Grand Junction (Jan 2026)
Chris K bio
Chris “K” started playing music as a child in the early 1960s, following in the footsteps of a family steeped in performance. His father was a jazz musician and actor, and his maternal grandfather had been a multi-instrumentalist during the Tin Pan Alley era of the 1920s and 30s.
At fifteen, Chris announced to his parents that he wanted to be a professional musician. His father replied, “learn to wash dishes, it’ll pay better”—but like most kids, Chris didn’t listen. In high school, his ambitions shifted toward theater, with plans to study acting in college. Those dreams were postponed when he joined the U.S. Air Force after graduation.
After his military service, Chris attended broadcasting school in Denver and launched his radio career in 1978. In 1981 he left Colorado again for Los Angeles and then to the Eastern seaboard where he toured with a contemporary Christian rock band and jammed alongside artists like Vicki Sue Robinson and Roger Ball (Average White Band).
Chris returned to Colorado in the mid-1980s and resumed work in radio while playing guitar with a popular Northern Colorado classic rock band. In the 1990s, he co-founded Alien Cowboy, a southern rock-inspired jamband that toured England before disbanding in 1999.
Since the formation of his current band, Goatz!, Chris has performed in direct support of country and Americana legendary acts, including Blackhawk, Guy Clark, Cross Canadian Ragweed, and Jim Lauderdale, performing at venues such as the iconic Mishawaka Amphitheatre, Washington’s FoCO, and countless breweries, distilleries, and back-alley bars across Colorado.
ARTISTS AND BANDS CHRIS’ PROJECTS HAVE PERFORMED IN DIRECT SUPPORT OF OVER THE YEARS
Blackhawk, Black Oak Arksansas, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Edgar Winter Band, Dave Mason, Firefall, Guy Clark, Jim Lauderdale, Johnny Van Zant Band, Marshall Tucker Band, Mickey & the Motorcars, Reckless Kelly.
SOME of the SONGWRITERS CHRIS COVERS
Bernie Taupin & Raul Malo (the Mavericks), Billie Joe Shaver, Bobby Troupe, Bruce Robison, Chris Knight, Chris Wall, Dave Alvin, Fred Eaglesmith, Guy Clark, Jimmie Rogers, John Dawson (New Riders of the Purple Sage), Kim Williams & Doug Johnson (Randy Travis), Merle Haggard, Rodney Crowell, Ronnie Van Zant & Gary Rossington (Lynyrd Skynyrd), Tom Russell, Toy Caldwell (Marshall Tucker Band)
VIDEOS AND OTHER RECORDINGS
BANDCAMP …if you want to buy a download to support
SOUNDCLOUD …demos and more.
YOUTUBE …videos from 2018-the most recent
NEW SONG – Ramblin’ Man … I was working on a song about south Texas and somehow this one popped out and onto the page. Recorded this demo in my home studio.
Live at WAREHOUSE2565 Grand Junction, Jan 16 2026
SWEET INSPIRATION, TITLE TRACK FROM DEBUT EP – RELEASED MARCH 2019 Special guest Angie Stevens. Recorded, mixed and mastered at Mighty Fine Productions in Denver with Colin Bricker in 2017 and 2018.
COUNTRY IN MY SOUL – LIVE AT THE MISHAWAKA AMPHITHEATRE – AUGUST 2017 – Chris K (lead vox/guitar), Chris Jackowski (lead guitar/vox), Chris Kennison (pedal steel), Riley Ann (fiddle/vox), Janeen Bogue (bass/vox) and Oscar DeSoto (drums)
ONCE UPON A SNOWFLAKE – DECEMBER 2009
The only thing Miss Patti and I ever recorded together, although she sang with me for sixteen years. She wrote the lyrics based on a Christmas night story she and her three year old granddaughter dreamed up. Produced by John McVey. Recorded at Coupe Studios in Boulder.
PRESS/MEDIA
Colorado Sound DJ Chris Kresge’s Debut Album Honors His Late Wife
Album Review: Goatz! – Sweet Inspiration
Chris K's Colorado Playlist 