KING-MURPHY

Comprehensive cancer care that sets us apart.

tween Evergreen Fire/Rescue and Clear Creek School District. Jensen has been in the 4th-grade classroom throughout the last few months working with the kids on becoming junior wild re ambassadors.

“ is program is a way to engage and empower fourth graders,” he said.

April 25 was the rst day of bootson-the-ground mitigation, but Jen- sen has been in the classroom seven times this semester teaching about the environment, wild re risks and more. He said the kids were ready to work and treated around an eighth of an acre. e junior ambassador program has been a great collaboration in the community between Evergreen Fire/ Rescue, the school district and the community, Jensen said.

“ e kids were spectacular, they each brought a rake and work gloves,” Jensen said.

Evergreen Fire/Rescue’s website has many resources for people

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF GEORGETOWN 812 Taos St., Georgetown • 303-569-2360

Serving the community since 1874. Sunday worship 10:00 am. Please join us!

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF IDAHO SPRINGS 100 Colorado Blvd., P.O. Box 840 Idaho Springs, CO 80452 learning about mitigation and how to do their part. Here are some tips on basic defensible space mitigation from the department:

Family worship Sundays at 10 a.m. Potluck lunch, 1st Sunday each month after service. Questions about faith or God? Come to Alpha, Thurs., 6:30 p.m. starting 3/9, Rock House, 542 CO Hwy. 103. Snacks, drinks and discussions provided!

ALL ARE WELCOME TO JOIN US!

Protecting the area around homes or buildings, known as defensible space, involves three zones of space stretching from structures.

• Evergreen Fire/Rescue’s guide to home ignition zones recommends that zone one, which is space within zero to ve feet of a structure, be cleared of ignitable debris like pine needles, dead leaves, slash and other ammable vegetation.

• In zone two, within ve to 30 feet of a structure, it recommends to mow tall grasses, remove fuels like logs and mulch and remove diseased or dying trees. ese are only a few recommendations on defensible space mitigation, for a complete look at the guidelines, visit the Evergreen Fire/Rescue website.

• In zone three, within 30 to 100 feet of a structure, it recommends mowing unnecessary grass and spacing trees.

THE

Listen Live: Conifer Radio now has two radio stations: MOUNTAIN CLASSIC ROCK and TWO EIGHTY VIBE

Conifer Podcast presents Dr. Tracy Hofeditz with his continuing Podcast series on Preventive Health Ideas for our Mountain Communities Wednesday May 10th at 5:00 pm on MOUNTAIN CLASSIC ROCK

Conifer Radio

WWW.CONIFERRADIO COM

Click the listen live buttons

Recognizing: Karen Heydman of Keller Williams Foothills Realty

30456 Bryant Drive

303.674.4803 building our new radio station.

Open

BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

At e Alley in downtown Littleton, you might nd a musician who’s so into the music, they’ll get up and dance on the bar.

When a local band surprises the crowd with a stellar performance that no one saw coming, “it just knocks people’s socks o ,” said Mary Riecks, e Alley’s bar manager and a Littleton-area native. e watering hole on Main Street doubles as a music venue that nds and helps grow local talent — and the shows are free. It’s one of the bars in the metro Denver suburbs that o ers a window into up-and-coming homegrown performers amid a music scene that one longtime bar owner says is growing.

“Twenty years ago when I opened up the bar, there were a few bars around that had live music,” said Doug Jacobsen, owner of Jake’s Roadhouse in Arvada.

Since then, he’s noticed that “all of these di erent bars” now o er space for shows, said Jacobsen, who has friends who perform at spots around metro Denver.

“ ere’s a lot of great musicians here,” Jacobsen said.

Here’s a look at places o the beaten path where you can catch some lesser known — and sometimes famous — music artists in person.

‘Something for everyone’ Wild Goose Saloon in Parker o ers a bit of a di erent environment: It’s a bar but also a large event venue. ey’re both longtime musicians themselves — they perform in a band called Lola Black, garnered play on the radio and toured around the country — and have played Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre several times, Dellinger said. ey take their knowledge of the industry to running the Wild Goose, which was built around the concept of serving as a music venue and has a bigger stage, sound and lighting setup than most bars do, Dellinger said.

It aims to be “Colorado’s version of the Knitting Factory” — a unique, independent venue that hosts local and national artists, said Chris Dellinger, who serves as co-owner of Wild Goose Saloon with his wife.

It’s “kind of like every musician’s dream to own their own venue at some place and time, and we just ended up being able to pull it o ,” said Dellinger, who lives in Aurora.

After opening in July 2021, Wild Goose has hosted some large country artists and “some `80s artists that are still big,” Dellinger said. National pop-rock act American Authors is set to play there in late April.

“My motto always is, ‘If you don’t like the music one night, that’s OK — it’ll be completely di erent the next night or the next week,’” Dellinger said. “So we really try to have something for everyone here.”

His venue tries to get exposure for local talent by letting them open for national touring acts. For the audience, the typical admission cost for a national artist’s show at Wild Goose sits around $25 to $30, but local artists’ ticketed shows can cost as low as $10, and most of the local artists’ shows are free.

Dellinger and his wife have

“snuck in” a performance or two at Wild Goose, he said — they were set to play there in late April with the Texas Hippie Coalition, an American heavy metal band. Keeping classics alive

You might also see Jacobsen, a guitarist himself, playing with a band at Jake’s Roadhouse in the north metro area every now and then.

His bar started o ering live music “right away” after opening near the end of 2003. Sitting in east Arvada close to Denver and Westminster, the venue o ers mostly cover bands and blues, and on Wednesday nights, bluegrass is on tap. Sometimes, artists play original songs, but it’s rare, Jacobsen said.

“Our people come in to hang out, and most original bands don’t have four hours’ worth of original music,” Jacobsen said.

But playing covers at Jake’s Roadhouse is one way to get a new artist’s foot in the door in the local music scene.

“We have bands that come to us all the time that can’t get these other bars to give them a chance to play because they haven’t played anywhere before,” Jacobsen said. He added: “We’re not like that. I know a lot of musicians around town, and we will give a band a chance to play just on the word of a friend.”

He feels that live music is im-

FROM

PAGE portant to promote — “especially nowadays.”

“I’m 68 years old, so I grew up with really a lot of good rock and roll from the `60s and `70s, and I think it’s important to keep that alive,” he said.

And there’s no ticket cost to watch the live music at Jake’s Roadhouse.

New talent in Littleton Music is always free to watch, too, at e Alley in Littleton on the southwest side of the Denver suburbs. e bar had its grand opening near the start of 2017 and has always featured live music, said Riecks, the bar manager.

“ ere were not that many places on Main Street here in downtown Littleton that featured live music other than karaoke or a DJ on the weekends, at least not regularly,” Riecks said. “If you did catch a live band, it was maybe one day a week.” e Alley came in and established a consistent place for live music, leaning toward classic rock but offering a variety of genres including blues, jazz, folk and bluegrass. Most of the acts that Riecks books are local. And among the original artists, performances typically include about 25% original songs and 75% covers, she said — catering to the crowds. e small main-street outlet is still an ideal place where you can catch new talent: Some nights of the week are centered around new artists.

“If you come play my open mic night and the open mic host thinks you have some serious potential, they’ll send them to me,” and then the artist may be featured in “new talent ursday,” Riecks said. After that, Riecks may o er an artist a weekend spot — a paid opportunity to play from 8 to 11 p.m.

“So there’s kind of a ladder,” Riecks said.

Some well-known artists have played at e Alley, including Sean Kelly of e Samples, “which was a huge band in the `90s,” said Riecks, who added that she receives at least 40 to 50 emails a month from local artists and national touring acts.