![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/river_arkansas.jpg\")
<\/p>\nPueblo, Colorado singer-songwriter Mike Clark enjoyed a big break when his band Haunted Windchimes scored two appearances \u2013 in 2011 and 2012 \u2013 on A Prairie Home Companion<\/i>. And while that band continues, Clark’s songwriting is too big for just one band. His prodigious and varied output meant starting another musical project \u2013 The River Arkansas \u2013 right alongside Haunted Windchimes.<\/p>\n
The performances on A Prairie Home Companion<\/i> were a springboard for Clark, but also for others in the Colorado music community, he says. The radio show \u201cshone a light on the music scene that we had going in Colorado Springs; there are lot of great bands in the Southern Colorado region.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The River Arkansas is part of that scene now, too, with a new album, You Animal<\/i>, set for release March 10. Clark says that having more than one group gives him \u201can opportunity to play all types of different genres.\u201d He says that The River Arkansas itself is pretty diverse, but that in the main it serves as an outlet for his \u201cquieter acoustic songs, things that fit better with violin and strings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clark is confident that You Animal<\/i> is the best collection yet of his songs. \u201cIt starts out nice and slow and builds and breaks throughout,\u201d he says. \u201cSome songs are really catchy, and others are really sad heartbreakers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The band’s instrumental makeup presents a very different side of Clark’s music. \u201cA cello and a violin together just make the most beautiful sounds,\u201d he says. Clark believes that Danah Overtree’s cello in particular \u201callows my more tender and slow songs to have a very powerful feel, and to be a little bit more emotionally charged.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the group approaches its material a bit differently than one might expect. \u201cWhen we play fast songs, the strings are sometimes playing what you’d consider a horn part,\u201d Clark says, \u201cwhich, I think, adds a whole new texture.\u201d<\/p>\n
The band \u2013 Clark, Overtree, upright bassist Macon Terry, violinist Rachel Silker and Robin Chestnut on drums \u2013 plays its music in a variety of settings. \u201cWe do all different types of things. We do musical festivals, bars, art galleries, private parties and weddings.\u201d With a laugh, he adds, \u201cWe’re taking about anything that comes our way if the deal seems good.\u201d<\/p>\n
But The River Arkansas doesn’t apply a one-set-fits-all approach to those varying shows. \u201cI approach every gig differently,\u201d Clark says. He recalls a recent Valentine’s Day performance in Nevada City. \u201cThere was no PA, and it was a loud bar full of people. We just set up with one microphone through an amplifier, and turned it into a dance party,\u201d he says. \u201cWe just gave people what they wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n
The very next night, The River Arkansas played \u201ca sleepy little saloon, and people wanted to hear the sad, slow stuff,\u201d Clark says. \u201cYou just have to try and get a feel for the crowd, and you’ve got to do it really fast.\u201d It helps greatly that The River Arkansas has a deep repertoire: \u201c30 or 40 songs that we play as a band,\u201d Clark says.<\/p>\n
And there’s no rigid set list. \u201cSome nights we play for three hours, some nights we play a 30 minute set. So I walk into every space trying to get an idea of what I think people are going to want, and then I just come off the cuff and make it up on the spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are built-in hazards to that kind of spontaneity. \u201c Sometimes I blow it,\u201d Clark laughs. \u201cSometimes I pick the wrong collection of tunes, and the show can be really awkward and really bad.\u201d But he can count on the support of his band mates, at least to a point. \u201cThey’re willing to go with me on whatever that journey is,\u201d he says. \u201cBut sometimes when I blow it, I can see it in their eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pueblo, Colorado singer-songwriter Mike Clark enjoyed a big break when his band Haunted Windchimes scored two appearances \u2013 in 2011 and 2012 \u2013 on A Prairie Home Companion. And while […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12778,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,41],"tags":[3060],"class_list":["post-12777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-americana","category-interview","tag-river-arkansas","cat-6-id","cat-41-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12777"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12779,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12777\/revisions\/12779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}