One of my goals each week is to expose you to a handful of new releases from Colorado. (edit Jan 9) I try to get 3-5 new cuts in each week’s show .. this week I debuted 5 new songs. The Great American Taxi debut is so new they don’t have anything online yet. Thanks to GAT for allowing me to share new music on the show before they are officially released it. (/edit)
I would love to meet you. I will be performing at Oskar Blues Homemade Liquids and Solids in Longmont on Friday Jan 20 – for my birthday show … and I’ll be at Avogadro’s Number in Fort Collins on the 27th with my friends Bonnie & the Clydes. Come out and party with us.
Support for Chris K’s Colorado Playlist comes courtesy of The Historic Mishawaka Amphitheatre — Celebrating over 100 yrs of music and dancing in the Poudre Canyon.
IN COLORADO MUSIC HISTORY
VIDEO PICK OF THE WEEK
Tennis has a new album due out soon. Here’s the first official video.
MONDAY MORNING MUSIC MEETING
What you’ll find below are new songs on the show this week … listen and let me know which ones you think I should keep in the Colorado Playlist, and which I should delete.
NOTE: In order to be included in the MMMM poll, the band/artist must have an embeddable file available on SoundCloud, BandCamp, Reverbnation or YouTube.
PLAYLIST S11 EP02
(D) = debut of lp, ep or single
(N) = new cut from previously debuted lp or ep
(R) = request
HOUR 1
The Astronauts “Baja” from Surfing with the Astronauts (1963) Boenzee Cryque “Ashbury Wednesday” [single] (1968) (D) Gasoline Lollipops “Love Is Free” [single] (2017)
Joel Ansett “Kingdom Come” from The Nature of Us (2016) Tennis “Never Work for Free” from Ritual In Repeat (2014) (D) Great American Taxi “We Can Run” from Dr. Feelgood’s Traveling Medicine Show (2017) John Oates “You Make My Dreams Come True” from Mississippi Mile (2011) Covenhoven “The Medicine” from The Wild and Free (2015) Slow Caves “Desert Minded” [single] (2016) (D) James Egbert & Nina Storey “Sound System” from Friction (2017)
Pandas & People “On My Way” from Pandas & People (2014) 12 Cents for Marvin “Yellow Raincoat Reborn” from The B-Load (2007) Ben Haugland “Birds of a Feather” from A Million Dreams (2015)
HOUR 2
Zephyr “We Got the Love” from Heartbeat (1982) (D) Russ Hopkins “Let It Roll” from Kairos (2017)
Andy Palmer “Grrr” from Sometime Around (2011) The Yawpers “Burdens” from American Man (2015) Whiskey Blanket “Men of Straw” from Men of Straw (2017) Rose Hill Drive “pictures of You” from Americana (2011) Sofie Reed “Box of Prayers” from Baby Boo Got Gone (2004) The Congress “Loretta” from The Congress (2010) (D) Ginny Mules “Stranger Now” from Ginny Mules (2017)
Richie Furay “Let’s Dance Tonight” from Heartbeat of Love (2006) Lionel Young Band “Blues & Boogie Woogie” from On Our Way to Memphis (2011) Dana Landry Quartet “Puttin’ on the Ritz” from Standard Elevation (2015)
Jan 27 – GOATZ! w/ Bonnie & the Clydes at Avogadro’s Number in Fort Collins 8PM-11:30PM
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I wish I could name everything I get to play on my show as a BEST OF. I mean that. In the TEN years now that I’ve been doing this show, I am still blown away by the greatness of the music that comes from our state.
Let me first of all thank Dani Grant and the folks at the Mishawaka Amphitheater, and the folks at Oskar Blues Fooderies for supporting this show in 2016. I would not be able to do this if not for them and YOUR financial support.
I also want to thank everyone at 105.5FM, KJAC aka 105.5 The Colorado Sound for welcoming me as part of the family, and taking on my old show name. Host stations now include KJAC(Northern Front Range), KRFC(Northern Colorado), KDNK(Carbondale/Glenwood Springs), KOTO(Telluride), KSUT(Ignacio/Durango/Pagosa Springs), KZYR(Vail), KCMJ (Colorado Springs) and KLZR (Westcliff)
I started this show, and starting booking and promoting bands here, because I got tied of people saying “how come Colorado (Denver) can’t be like ______ (name your favorite ahem – Seattle – etc)” I mean, really. And even to this day members of my own family don’t know that certain high profile national level bands are from here. I have a lot of work to do still … so expect me on the air for another TEN years — AT LEAST!
Picking the BEST OF is not an especially easy task. I spend several hours a week just listening to music I receive to play on the show. I scan radio playlists from around the state. I scan charts including national and instate – like the Roots Music Report Colorado charts. I look to see who’s doing what, nationally, regionally and locally. I listen to my colleagues and peers in the “industry” here in Colorado. And I listen to the fans of the music.
My true hope is that you’ll discover a new band/artist to fall in love with and claim as a favorite yourself.
Here’s what got played in the BEST OF 2016 show.
The Best of 2016 PLAYLIST
HOUR 1
Rob Drabkin “Someday” [single] (2016) Coral Creek “Way Back” from Coral Creek (2015) The Drunken Hearts “Want You Back” from Love & Thirst (2016) SHEL “You Could Be My Baby” from Just Crazy Enough (2016) Magic Music “Gandy Dancer” from Magic Music (2016) Elephant Revival “Petals” from Petals (2016) OneRepublic “Kids” from Oh My My (2016) SuCh (Su Charles) “You (Icytat Vocal Mix)” [single] (2016) Bonnie and The Clydes “Shiny and New” from Dear Somebody (2016) Big Gigantic “The Little things” from Brighter Future (2016) Space Orphan “Superphonic” from Shut Up About The Sun (2016)
HOUR 2
The Motet “The Truth” from Totem (2016) Wheelchair Sports Camp “Mary Had a Little Band” from No Big Deal (2013) The Fray “Singing Low” from Through the Years: The Best of the Fray (2016) Lumineers “Ophelia” from Cleopatra (2016) Other Worlds “Sandfly” from Weather Patterns (2016) Eros and the Eschaton “Rxx” from Weight of Matter (2016) Grant Farm “Get in Line” from Kiss The Ground (2016) FaceMan “Father Time” from Wild and Hunting (2016) Brent Cowles “Cold Times” from Cold Times (2016) Paper Bird “To the Light” from Paper Bird (2016) Big Head Blues Club “Hidden Charms” from Way Down Inside (Songs Of Willie Dixon) (2016) Ryan A. Fourt “Air Gun (Daisy’s Revenge)” from Big Slick (2016)
TRUSTED EAR SCENE REPORT
Thanks to my friend, and former Westword music editor Dave Herrera for launching TheTrustedEar.com and contributing news and information about the scene to us each week.
THE TOP 3 BEST OF …
After anguishing over leaving stuff out that I really liked, and thought deserved being noticed, I decided to present the TOP 3 releases in each category. Enjoy. Links go to playable media: YouTube in most cases.
PEOPLE’S CHOICE 2016
This one went back and forth feverishly between Bonnie & the Clydes and The Drunken Hearts, and the final tally made it a finish by single digits … so basically, they were pretty nearly tied when I shut down the poll … All in all, thanks to their fans we enjoyed the most robust People’s Choice Poll in years. Click on links to get to band website.
The Lumineers – Cleopatra I didn’t like The Lumineers’Cleopatra when it dropped. In fact, it took me several months of listening to it, and playing it on my show and at 105.5, before I “got it.” It is a stunning album of really well written folk-rock songs, that stands up well to anything from any prior era. It went #1 on the Billboard charts.
OneRepublic – Oh My My Call me a pop music junkie, but when it’s a good as OneRepublic’s Oh My My, I can never overdose. Easily one of the best collections of addicting pop/rock in recent memory. (edit jan 4) In particular I can’t seem to get enough of A.I. with Peter Gabriel.
Big Head Blues Club – Way Down Inside Todd Park Mohr and company, appearing as Big Head Blues Club, rip up the music of Willie Dixon, preserving not only the legacy of the original, but imbuing it with solid craftsmanship from some of our best in the Centennial state. (edit jan 4) Along the way they enlist the aid of Denver’s Erica Brown and a handful of blues legends.
SONG OF THE YEAR
SuCh (Su Charles) – You (Icytat Vocal Mix): No song this year has had as much of an impact on me as “You.” SuCh and Icytat won the 2016 All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA) for this version of the song. If you want to catch her live, she’ll be appearing at Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox in Denver on Fri Feb 3. She is also getting ready to go into the studio to record a new album in 2017.
The Lumineers – Ophelia: When I first heard this song last winter I thought I was hearing a dropped track from the band’s debut. It grew on me. It’s also one of Colorado’s highest charting songs historically, peaking at #1.
Rob Drabkin – Someday: I’ve been a fan of Rob’s since meeting him at open stages in Denver over a decade ago. “Someday” is the song we’ve all been waiting for. It also appears to be his most popular single so far, reaching over 500,000 plays on Spotify.
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.