A review of Chris Daniels & the Kings’ Funky to the Bone

Chris Daniels & the Kings

Funky to the Bone

Moon Voyage

Oh man, this is great. We could literally listen to this album on repeat all day. Chris Daniels is a veteran of the Colorado music scene, inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame in 2013, and a Grammy nominee. Meanwhile Freddi Gowdy, who guests on this album, was a member of Freddi/Henchi & the Soulsetters, the band that moved from Arizona to Boulder in the 1970s and became a hugely popular party band in the area for the next couple of decades.

Put them together and what have you got? A killer (as they call it) “rock & soul and funky blues” record. Remember that movie about the Irish band The Commitments? Or even The Blues Brothers? On a more contemporary level, the Detroit band the Wrong Numbers? Funky to the Bone is just as much fun as any of that stuff.

The brass on a song like the title track, Daniels getting all fresh on “Birthday Suit,” the sheer joy of, ahem, “Joy” – this is a record that makes you want to get up and dance like the nearly-40 man with no moves that this writer is. Honestly, it was tough to listen to it at work, in an office environment, and remain professional.

Everything about this record is superb, and full of life. All of the musicians are exemplary, and the songs aim for the throat. It succeeds at every level. Now we just want to see them live.