It all starts here!

We're so blessed to have SO MANY talented musicians local to us in CO. Come enjoy our versatile and engaging musicians both in classes and with sets that will keep you dancing well past your bedtime (or at least our kids'!). 

Maynard Mills

Maynard learned the Blues the hard way in the tough industrial town of Gary, Indiana. He has spent a lifetime immersing himself in the bitter-sweet sounds of Muddy Waters, Albert King, Lightning Hopkins, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, and a host of others too numerous to mention. Once Maynard warms to his work, he captures his audience’s rapt attention with an infectious blend of soulful vocals, punctuated with searing guitar licks.

​For over 30 years, Maynard has enjoyed the odd paradox of playing to packed houses while remaining relatively obscure in Denver. He doesn’t seem to mind, however, as he says with a deep and down voice, “I feel very humble to carry on the tradition of these great musicians.”

His upbeat music has a contagious effect that gets even non-dancers up on their feet and onto the dance floor. Feeling good is the name of the game when it comes to the Maynard Mills Blues Band. 

John Long

John Long's uncanny ability to sound like a prewar country blues player -- even as he plays original blues pieces he wrote himself or with his older brother Claude Long -- makes his music sound both like a facsimile of the 1920s and early-30s blues 78s he so treasures, while somehow simultaneously sounding refreshingly modern, maybe because nobody plays this kind of throwback blues anymore, at least not with the care and precision that Long brings to it. Long was born in St. Louis, MO in 1950, and grew up listening to his mother's jazz and R&B 78s, and the scratchy sturdiness of the old discs filtered directly into his musical DNA. Before he was even a teen, Long was already trying to figure out how to play country blues songs on guitar. Along with his brother Claude (who also played guitar), he formed the Mystics in the early 60s to play contemporary rock & roll and R&B material, but both brothers were drawn increasingly to the old blues sound, and Long soon realized he had discovered his artistic home in the music of the prewar acoustic blues era. He moved to Chicago in the early 70s, where he was mentored by Homesick James Williamson and began playing local gigs. After seeing Long perform during this time period, none other than Muddy Waters proclaimed Long to be "the best young country blues artist playing today." 
Steve Leggett, All Music Guide

Nic Clark

Nic Clark first stepped foot onto a Colorado stage at the age of 12 years old, and by age 14, he had been given an endorsement deal by the world largest harmonica maker, Hohner. Nic has gone on to grace stages all over the country including eTown and Red Rocks and has even performed on a ship in international waters. Nic has performed and worked with a who’s who list of musicians including Rick Estrin, Kid Andersen, Billy Branch, Lurie Bell, Chris Cain, Elvin Bishop, Charlie Musslewhite, Big Head Todd & the Monsters and most recently collaborated and recorded with famed musician Charlie Hunter for Nic’s new album, ‘Everybody’s Buddy’, out July 2023. Between 2018 and March of 2020 Nic performed over 18 months in a row for the month Blues Dance at the Mercury Cafe as a member of the Curtis Hawkins Band. Recently, Nic won the 2023 ‘Harmonica Player of the Year’ award, voted for by the Colorado Blues Society, an award he has won many times before, He also was awarded 2024 “Favorite Songwriter” by the same group this year. Nic is also the Lead Harmonica Instructor at Swallow Hill Music in Denver, CO.

Photos by Grant Fukui