Music of the Mountains: Where to be and what to see -- Mike Clark of The River Arkansas and Jack Cloonan

The River Arkansas initially formed when frontman Mike Clark (guitar, banjo, and singer-songwriter) and Macon Terry (bass) met as members of other bands in 2014, and realized soon after that they both lived in Colorado Springs. Clark and Terry ended up performing in the studio together and releasing the band’s debut album, Golden Light.

Terry then brought players from his own band Clouds and Mountains, Robin Chestnut (drums) and Rachel Sliker (violin), and toured the West Coast for a month before releasing the second River Arkansas album, You Animal. They’ve since released a third album, Any Kind of Weather, and three EPs, “Damn Good Dog,” “Waiting on the Rain,” and “Green Bridge”.

Before Clark became a musician, he started as a semi-professional trials bike rider, taking his first big road trip across the West Coast at the age of 27 with a friend of his to ride their bikes and meet other riders to compete with. Clark’s friend, Patrick, would play his guitar many times throughout the trip (Clark didn’t know he had a guitar before this trip), and Patrick’s playing inspired Clark enough that he bought a harmonica during a stop at a Seattle music shop. He practiced during the rest of the trip, and that was his first venture into music.

Jack Cloonan’s grandfather and father played accordion, and his father also played tenor banjo. Cloonan started playing accordion at seven years old and violin at nine, focusing on traditional Irish jigs. Around the age of fourteen, he picked up a guitar and started playing more contemporary rock tunes, such as those by Led Zeppelin. He picked up a mandolin for the first time during high school, and eventually, he found bands such as Leftover Salmon and String Cheese Incident, who took Irish tunes and fused them with American stylings. At around nineteen, he started writing his own songs, with some of his guitar influences including Doc Watson, Clarence White, Tony Rice, Larry Keel, and Jake Workman.

Cloonan has also been able to spend time with banjo influence Andy Thorn from Leftover Salmon, as well as perform many times with Silas Herman, son of Vince Herman, founding member of the iconic band. Silas Herman, while also performing many times with his dad, has performed in dozens of music festivals and has shared the stage and recorded with groups and individuals such as Drunken Hearts, Terrapin Family Band with Peter Rowan, Sam Bush, Chris Thile of Nickel Creek and Punch Brothers, and The Kitchen Dwellers (just within the last couple of months).

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