The 14ers play upbeat songs about the Colorado lifestyle

By Steve Graham

Ryan Kirkpatrick was guiding a group up Mount Shavano in 2012 when one hiker took a phone call in what should have been a cellular dead zone. That’s how he learned about the Aurora theater shooting.

“The sun came up and beat our faces with beautiful rays as we let that ugly news sink in,” Kirkpatrick said. “I remember thinking that if anyone could experience the beauty of a Colorado sunrise from the top of a 14er, the world would have to be a better place. They couldn’t do something that horrible (the shooting), right? … I’ve been trying to get as many people outside having a good time for as long as I can remember, and therefore my music is a reflection of that life.”

Kirkpatrick is something of a full-time spokesman for the Centennial State.

The northern Colorado native is relentlessly upbeat, and has the everyman charm of Owen Wilson. He travels regularly with the non-profit guide company he started. And he has plenty of potential Colorado theme songs recorded with his aptly named band, The 14ers.

Drummer Barry Bates said anyone can relate to the Colorado lifestyle in Kirkpatrick’s lyrics, and noted his pleasant surprise upon seeing several fans singing along with every word at the first 14ers show in Los Angeles.

“Even if folks haven’t experienced the Colorado mountains, or outdoors, I think just about everyone wishes they had,” Bates said. “It definitely connects.”

A highlight of the latest 14ers album is “Mountain Town,” which is clearly written by someone who has spent a lot of time in Telluride or Steamboat Springs.

“We hit the hill, it’s still coming down. It’s a good life in a mountain town,” Kirkpatrick sings. “Wake and bake, enjoy the ride, there’s a hot springs party on the other side. Taunt the night like a rodeo clown, it’s a damn good life in a mountain town. The winters bring us, and summers leave us all spellbound.”

Kirkpatrick writes many of his songs in his tent or in a gear trailer he takes into the backcountry for his guiding trips. While his customers sleep off a long, active day, he turns his meditations and outdoor bliss into lyrics.

Kirkpatrick’s guiding career started while he was earning a master’s degree and trail running at Colorado State University. He got a standing summer job at CSU’s Mountain Campus Pingree Park, where he started with making beds and cleaning bathrooms but soon was helping lead guided education programs for seniors.

“My running career kind of ended, I broke my foot and had an appendectomy, the one-two punch,” Kirkpatrick said. “I got way into the guiding.”

He also got more serious about playing music, starting with The Kirkpatrick Project, an acoustic band with his brother. After his brother moved away, he started The 14ers as a flexible collective.

“I didn’t know who was going to play on it; I just wanted it to be friends,” he said.

One of those friends, 14ers bassist and backup vocalist Stu Cruden, said it’s hard to keep up with Kirkpatrick, who never seems to sleep or run out of energy.

“It can wring you out but it’s the most fun you can have with your pants on,” Cruden said.

Kirkpatrick said he puts all his boundless passion into sharing the Rocky Mountain lifestyle with everyone he can, either through guided adventures or music.

“One by one on the trips I have gotten to show people the outdoors and watch them glow and enjoy themselves through their outdoor experience,” he said. “Not everyone can come take a week-long vacation with me though. I want our music to make people happy and showcase Colorado when possible.”

Steve Graham is a freelance writer and former newspaper editor who likes taking his two young boys biking, hiking and brewery-hopping in northern Colorado.