This is Chris Daniels & The Kings 15 album, and our second with Freddi Gowdy. As we’ve toured blues festivals over the US and Europe I’ve noticed that the old tradition of horns is disappearing. At a blues & brews in Greeley I met one young blues-fan who’d been standing and staring at us. He came up after our set and asked me why I called our music ‘funky blues’ – a name festivals and European fans use to describe our music. He was a traditionalist and thought blues was 12-bars, guitar and maybe harp, but not sax, trumpet and horns. I gave him my email and suggested he listen to Bobby Blue Bland, Johnny Taylor, Albert King, Walter Wolf Man Washington, Gatemouth Brown and a host of incredible artists who’s use of horns is as essential to their music as a guitar is to Sonny Landreth. I also suggested he check the life and history of W.C. Handy. He wrote me back about a month later and said, “I had no idea. I got into blues because of Gary Clark Jr. and the then discovered Stevie Ray Vaughn and then Eric Clapton and Robert Cray and I never knew about this horn thing. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me. My favorite right now is Johnny Guitar Watson. Have you heard his old stuff from the 50s and 60s?” I had to laugh. And I thought, I wonder how many other blues fans don’t know about the New Orleans, Memphis horn tradition in blues that goes back 100 + years. That’s the seed that started this album. The reason that this is called “Volume I” is simple. We only scratched the surface of all the incredible blues with horns. More to come! Blues comes from countless inspirations, lust, lost love, oppression, health, booze, self-destruction – you name it. And by playing it, singing it and dancing to it –blues liberates – even if only for a moment. There are a lot of very simple lyrics in blues that say a great deal more than the basic text. But there are also really great (and funny) lyrics in blues. T Rex, Bobby Blue Bland, Walter Wolfman Washington all bring that sense of empowerment to their lyrics. What’s important is not that you lay your head on some lonesome railroad track. What’s important is that you ‘snatch their damn head back.’ I grew up listening to Koerner, Ray and Glover and like their songs these lyrics were really fun to sing. With love and thanks to Freddi, The Kings, Jacob, John, Mark, Hazel, Coco, Doug, Sonny, Magnie, Clay Kirkland and Greg for making this the best Kings album so far. Big hugs, Chris Daniels Chris Daniels – vocals, guitar, slide guitar and synth guitar Freddi Gowdi – vocals The Kings: Randy Amen – drums and vocals Kevin Lege – bass and vocals Colin “Bones” Jones – lead guitar Jim Waddell – alto and tenor sax and vocals Darryl Abrahamson – trumpet and vocals Guests: Sonny Landreth – slide guitar John Magnie - keyboards Doug Krause – keyboards Clay Kirkland - harmonica Hazel Miller and Coco Brown – backing vocals Bob Rebhoz – tenor sax and horn arrangements Darren Kramer – trombone and horn arrangements Engineered by: Jacob Davis Mark Oblinger Tony Daigle Kyle Smith Chris Daniels Mixed by John McVey at Cinder Sound Recorded at: Coupe Studios, Boulder, CO Sailfish Studios, Erie, CO Daigle Sound, Lafayette, LA Mastered by Dominick Maita Mastering LLC Album Design – Greg Carr & Chris Daniels Dedicated to Albert King, Al Kooper, Bobby Blue Bland and all those remarkable men and women who recorded and played with killer horn-sections that I listened to as a kid.