Mike Clark & The Sugar Sounds bring music to mural festival

As several artists make Carson City more colorful, Mike Clark & the Sugar Sounds will bring sweet music to the air. The band performs a free concert outside the Brewery Arts Center on Saturday as part of the Murals and Music Festival in Carson City. The music starts at 5 p.m. with opening band Kilowatt Hours.

Clark said he’s excited for the performance and thanked BAC Director Spike McGuire giving them the opportunity to play.

“Thank you, Carson City for having us,” Clark said.

Clark comes from Pueblo, Colorado. He said it’s been several years since he has played in the area. He remembers playing many times at Sassafras Eclectic Food Joint. He said he’s happy to be back in town and playing with as a three-piece band. They’re also happy to be part of the mural festival and hope they can get around town to check out the artwork.

“It’s one of the bigger shows on our tour this run, so I’m excited to see how it goes,” he said.

Clark describes his soulful rock and roll music.

“It’s not one or the other so much, and it has a heavy blues influence,” he said.

Clark said the live show “rips” with drums, electric guitar, baritone sax, singing and harmonies.

“It’s a fairly high energy show at times and then we break it down to some slow, crooning soul tunes,” he said.

Clark has been traveling as a duo with saxophone player Rachael McElhiney. They will play as a trio on Saturday when they add local drummer Jake Wood for the gig. They just started playing with Wood for this leg of the tour.

Clark plays electric guitar, writes all the music and sings. McElhiney plays baritone sax and sings harmonies.

“She really takes solos everywhere,” Clark said.

The band is excited for an upcoming album release called “Hot Coffee.” Clark said they put the final touches on it Monday and plan to release it in March 2025. They had recorded some of it at Clark’s house and some of it at a studio in Reno.

“It’s hard to explain what kind of music it is,” Clark said. “It’s some hugely layered soul tunes, and it’s some strangely stark tunes about coffee.”

The album features 12 songs with a full band and lots of guitar solos and saxophone solos.

They even recorded a music video while in Wisconsin that Clark said was a lot of fun. They wore all white clothing they found at thrift stores and had gallons of coffee thrown on them. Stay tuned to their social media pages to see when that comes out.

You can hear a preview of some tunes and hear plenty more at the show on Saturday.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Mike Clark & The Sugar Sounds and opening band The Kilowatt Hours.

WHEN: 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28

WHERE: Brewery Arts Center, 449 W. King St.

COST: Free

MORE INFO: www.thesugarsounds.com; breweryarts.org/