NEDERLAND — In recent years, Dango Rose has focused on fleshing out his solo catalog as a touring and performing musician. In 2018, he shifted to collaborating with artists on his own material when the transcendental folk band Elephant Revival, which he co-founded in 2006, went on hiatus.
Now, he’s taken his collaborative experience to the University of Colorado Denver’s College of Arts and Media. Working in Music and Entertainment Studies as an assistant professor and the director of the singer/songwriter program, he brings his experience to CU Denver students to help bring their songs to life.
“I work on probably over 300 songs a year with the students,” says Rose. “Now, the beauty of it is I get to start focusing on my own songs for the summer.”
Elephant Revival started touring again in 2022, and Rose has started transitioning back into performing and still tours with the band. However, he currently aims to primarily focus on songwriting and education.
He looks back fondly on Elephant Revival’s formative years, recalling the time the band spent on a school bus (converted by banjo player Sage Cook to run on vegetable oil).
“We’re asked the question, when are the good old days,” reflects Rose. “I don’t think you really realize when they are until they’re long gone. I think at that point, you just start creating them again.”
Now focusing on his solo catalog, he aims to become more vulnerable and personal in sharing his material, recognizing the internal hesitance that comes with that. He is currently focusing on the connections between songwriting and mental health, staying aware of his personal experiences performing.
“When I play the upright bass, it’s like riding a bike,” says Rose. “I feel so comfortable. Throw me on any stage, I won’t get nervous. But there’s that vulnerability in sharing songs; that is one of the most vulnerable things. I notice the stories, the negative self-talk that I have that’s personalized to me, and the way I talk to myself or the way I was talked to. ”
For him, a solo career has been his biggest self-made obstacle, because collaborating with other artists gives him what he considers a shield in sharing his work compared to associating those stories directly to him as an artist and a person.
“Moving through those blockages, I think it happens for people at different ages,” says Rose, who sees these manifestations in different ways as a teacher. “A lot of my students think their opportunities have passed them by. This whole concept of age that I see in Generation Z right now, because of screen culture, believing that they’ve failed before they’ve even begun, it’s an interesting thing in culture right now.”
While Dango doesn’t aim to be a singer-songwriter performing for the world, he hopes that working on solo material and sharing his own songs allows him to confront his own stories while also allowing others to recognize those stories manifest in different ways for everyone.
Dango Rose will perform as an opener for Tennessee band Redd and the Paper Flowers at Ned General, located at 112 E Second Street in Nederland, on Saturday, May 30, 2026, starting at 8 p.m.
