Daniel Mescher

Pueblo musician Mike Clark plays in several Colorado bands, including The Sugar Sounds amd The Haunted Windchimes. Lately though, his focus is on country-folk band The River Arkansas. The band is set to release the new album “You Animal” next month. The River Arkansas returned to our studio for the first time since 2015 to share some new music from the forthcoming LP. Clark and the other members also chatted with Alisha Sweeney about recording the album in Houston, the album’s title and how a birthday party gig funded their new record.

Dragondeer has spent the last three years thrilling audiences with a mix of electric blues, rock and bluegrass. It’s safe to say the Denver band has left an impression on Colorado music fans: Westword readers selected Dragondeer as Colorado’s “Best Blues Rock Band” two years in a row. Dragondeer has just one EP to its name so far, but that will change when the band releases its debut full-length later this year. The quartet recorded the album in California with producer Mark Howard, who has worked with Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and Tom Waits. The band members stopped into the CPR Performance Studio to play some new music and chat with Alicia ‘Bruce’ Mitchell about recording their first LP, the reaction they get from electric mandolin solos and what they’re looking forward to in 2017.

Denver’s The Baltic has been on our radar since the members started making music together as teenagers. The quartet had a big 2016: They signed a new record deal and performed at Red Rocks for the “Film On The Rocks” concert series. ​The band members — now all attending different colleges — returned to the CPR Performance Studio for the first time since 2014. They played some new unreleased music and spoke with Alisha Sweeney about signing to Misra Records, writing music via email and their first ever live performance in sixth grade.

When Flaural visited our studio in 2015, the Denver psych-rock band had just formed a few months beforehand and played only one show. But the band members had established specific goals: release some EPs, go on tour and play some festival dates. Flaural has since accomplished each of those goals and established themselves in the Denver music scene. The band members returned to CPR’s OpenAir to play some new music and speak with Jeremy Petersen about staying busy during their first full year as a band, their recent recording sessions in California and their ambitions for the new year.