Chris Koza is a composer and performer based in Denver, Colorado and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Both solo and with his band Rogue Valley, he has supported and shared the stage with artists such as Brandi Carlile, Gordon Lightfoot, Ingrid Michaelson, The Jayhawks, Neko Case, Kathleen Edwards, Dan Wilson, and Stephen Kellogg, among others. His music appears regularly on ABC’s General Hospital, 60 Minutes, and Good Morning America, and his song Be Wild was featured in a State of Minnesota tourism campaign. In 2021, Chris recorded a version of Willie Nelson's classic On The Road Again, for a Winnebago campaign benefitting National Parks. His song (Rogue Valley) The Wolves and the Ravens was featured in Ben Stiller’s film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Chris often performs solo with an acoustic guitar but also performs as a duo, trio, and 4-or-5 piece band.
In his writing, Chris both honors and builds on the vast genre of Americana music. For every song that sounds like it could be strummed from a boxcar clacking slowly across a grassy midwestern plain, there's a tune sailing from a city rooftop, echoing across a valley of streets and traffic, or a melody twisting and shimmering like a dim frequency deep into the starry night.
Solo, with Rogue Valley, and his moniker Nobody Kid, Chris has self-produced, written, and released sixteen albums and EP's. In 2023, Rogue Valley will release their 6th album Shell Game and Chris is working on a compilation of B-sides and rediscovered sessions called Graveyard Shift, of songs and sparks spanning the last twenty years.
Chris performs as a duo for the 2023 Big Turn Music Festival