"Don't hold on to your exact vision for the outcome - especially in the journey from writing the song to the finished album. Everybody that I've worked with from Al Kooper to David Bromberg, Coco Brown to Hazel Miller have added to my original idea and taken it to a new place. And if I am open to it ... can see the vision ... it makes it better. Now, sometimes you say, "well that's a great part but not on this track." But for the most part - collaboration is a journey that makes the end result much much better."

Chris Daniels: 40 Years With The Kings

Chris Daniels & The Kings with Freddi Gowdy are celebrating their 40th year with a brand new album titled ‘40: Blues with Horns Volume II (2024), and BLUES WITH HORNS Volume I (2017) - their 19th and 20th Kings albums plus their fourth with Freddi Gowdy of the Freddi Henchi Band. who joined in December 2010. Freddi joined Chris as an inductee into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame in 2019! In the liner notes of their effervescent new album, 40 - Blues With Horns Volume II, by Chris Daniels and the Kings, Daniels describes Louis Armstrong's brilliant 1928 recording of “West End Blues” as the beginning of an era of “horn-band sound.” The King's 20th album on their 40th anniversary proves that their magnificent big-band sound is still keeping that era alive. The Colorado-based Kings have been pumping out music since their 1984 founding by Daniels, with the band membership shape-shifting along the way. The Kings of this album are: Chris Daniels, vocals,  guitars; Freddi Gowdy, vocals; Steve Ivey, drums; John Thornburg, bass and vocals; Colin “Bones” Jones, guitars; Bob Rebholz, alto sax and flute; Darryl “Doody“ Abrahamson, trumpet and vocals; Darren Kramer, trombone. Daniels and Gowdy share the vocals all through the tracks.         (Photo: Chris Daniels)

Guests adding their talents throughout include Christian Teele, percussion; Mark Oblinger and Linda Lawson, vocals with Robert Johnson and Kenny Andrus; Sam Bush, mandolin and fiddle; Hazel Miller, vocals; Tom Capek, B3 and keyboards; Steve Conn, accordion, B3; and Sonny Landreth, slide guitar. The multi-award-winning Kings have toured with Albert King, James Taylor, Tom Jones, Al Kooper, David Bromberg and many more, and backed everybody from bluesy Bonnie Raitt to rocking Bo Diddly and country superstar Garth Brooks. The band plays good old-fashioned jump blues and their distinctive mountain-funk with joyous emotion, horns that blaze through ten tracks on this musical romp, and Daniels and Gowdy sharing vocal duties on each one.

Interview by Michael Limnios                 Archive: Chris Daniels, 2017 Interview

How do you think that you have grown as an artist since you first started making music?

I think in a lot of ways I'm better at what I do. I sing better, I've become a really good rhythm guitarist, my songwriting has gotten to where I think it stands up with others I like - like Keb Mo, and I have something to say, and finally, my album producing has gotten to where others seek me out to produce their albums.

What has remained the same about your music-making process?

I have learned to accept the sporadic way I write. I am a collector...riffs... poetic ideas, song ideas, story lines and the like. I collect and I collect and then when I'm ready....I start to sift through, to edit and to combine - kind of like sculpting with words and riffs ... until a story starts to unfold.

Currently you’ve one more release with Freddi Gowdy and The Kings. How did that relationship and idea of band come about?

The idea for the band was funny ... it was supposed to be a one-night stand. I was in this great band backing Russell Smith of the Amazing Rhythm Aces in 1984 and we decided to do a side project... we borrowed the Gris Gris New Orleans Horns to do a gig at the Blue Note. Folks flipped out and within a month we were booked throughout the year. Freddi joined in 2010 ... I've always thought he had the best voice in Soul music and getting the chance to play with him was a dream ... and now it's like he's my other half.

"I have learned to accept the sporadic way I write. I am a collector...riffs... poetic ideas, song ideas, story lines and the like. I collect and I collect and then when I'm ready....I start to sift through, to edit and to combine - kind of like sculpting with words and riffs ... until a story starts to unfold." (Photo: Chris Daniels & The Kings - Freddi joined Chris into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame in 2019)

Do you have any interesting stories about the making of the new album ”40”?

Yeah, we did all the tracking in 2 days ... kind of like Miles Davis doing Kind of Blue. I think Davis did that in two sessions in April 1959... something like that. He wanted to capture the spontaneity of live and also the quality of studio. It's 2024 so the difference is that I wanted to do three things, capture the energy of live, and be able to have the magic of studio overdubs with friends like Sonny, Hazel and Sam ... AND ... pay tribute to a 40 year project with reimagining classic CD&K tunes and adding new songs to the songbook.

What is the driving force behind your continuous support for your music?

Well, I almost died in 20210 ... As a result of that battle I have some side-effect damage that lingers - but the honest fact is -- every single day I get up in the morning - I am blessed - I get one more day -- I "get" to do this --it is a blessing - and I am so grateful -- grateful for the DJ's who play the record, the fans that like and the reviewers that take the time to tell others about it ... having been where I was ... I know how blessed I am!

What would you say characterizes Colorado blues scene in comparison to other local US scenes and circuits?

Well, Colorado is really weird. We have The Colorado Blues Society and the supporters of traditional guitar-slinger blues .. The Greeley Blues Jam etc. and with that comes this goofy traditionalist blues prejudice - blues has got to be hard-edged, lead-guitar centric, 12-bar blues.

And that is here and entrenched. BUT what is also here are all these clubs like The Little Bear and fans who LOVE this horn-band sound we do. They really embrace it -- like they were in Memphis or New Orleans where it's part of the culture. It's weird to have both the push-back from the traditionalists and the encouragement from the openminded and the kids. And there are some great players and singers, Lionel Young, T Rex, Erica Brown, Hazel Miller, and my old pal David Booker - before he passed. It's a really healthy scene.

"Well, I teach. I teach music history AND I teach music business. One of my greatest joys is running into my former students out there giging. One of my former students is Mavis Staples' road manager. Another is working with Rhiannon Giddens and I have singers out with Elephant Revival and sound engineers with Lake Street Dive. That's my greatest joy as far as teaching goes." (Colorado-based band, Chris Daniels & The Kings have been pumping out music since their 1984 founding by Daniels / Photo by Susan Beyda)

What are some of the most important lessons you have learned from your experience in the music paths?

Don't hold on to your exact vision for the outcome - especially in the journey from writing the song to the finished album. Everybody that I've worked with from Al Kooper to David Bromberg, Coco Brown to Hazel Miller have added to my original idea and taken it to a new place. And if I am open to it ... can see the vision ... it makes it better. Now, sometimes you say, "well that's a great part but not on this track." But for the most part - collaboration is a journey that makes the end result much much better.

What's the balance in music between technique (skills) and soul/emotions?

You've got to have you 10,000 hours, your chops. You've got to know what you're good at. I am a good rhythm guitarist -- I am not a great soloist - know your limitations -- exploit the things you do that are excellent. Soul, mojo, emotion ... if it doesn't have that ... you can spend a hundred hours on it ... and it won't have it. "But just because a record has a groove, don't make it in the groove." Steve Wonder

Why is it important to we preserve and spread the blues?

OK, I am a little weird. I teach History of Jazz at the University. So, the importance of knowing the heritage of the music we play is essential -- this is the music of Black Americans made by  everybody from Bessie Smith to BB King. I wouldn't do what I do without Louie Armstrong and Louie Jordan.

Now as to the other ... when you are walking though your Kroger or Home Depot listening to "Start Me Up" for the 800th time -- don't ya think they could spin "Jump" by Chris Daniels and Freddi Gowdy just once? I do. I think that music is everywhere now ... probably so much so that it is not special the way it once was. But I would wish that the programers in those places would become a little more adventurous! As far as spreading the love of "blues with horns" whether it's Johnny Taylor or Bobby Blue Bland or Johnny Guitar Watson -- yeah I am a believer, I am an apostle - spreading the 'good news.'

What are you doing to keep your music relevant today, to develop it and present it to the new generation?                          (Chris Daniels / Photo by Michael Mark)

Relevant -- the sound we make, the lyrics we write, but even more than that, the arrangements,  adopting rap-sections in some of our songs...blues rap, and most important trying to engage all the young folks in our audiences - and man o man do they dig it....they all ask, 'Have you heard Cory Wong?' or other new artists. And oh boy yes!!

"Soul, mojo, emotion ... if it doesn't have that ... you can spend a hundred hours on it ... and it won't have it."

Life is more than just music, is there any other field that has influence on your life and music?

Well, I teach. I teach music history AND I teach music business. One of my greatest joys is running into my former students out there giging. One of my former students is Mavis Staples' road manager. Another is working with Rhiannon Giddens and I have singers out with Elephant Revival and sound engineers with Lake Street Dive. That's my greatest joy as far as teaching goes. And I am a dad and now a Opa too. That's about as magical as it gets. As far as weird things - I have collected a lot of guitars - most of them gifts - and I am an old lefty from way back. Most of all, I am blessed. Leukemia was supposed to kill me when I was 57 and I am still here and so flippin grateful for every day, every gig, ever record, every moment.

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