Boulder is a town where you never say never to band reunions. Sometimes the reunions last, and other times the players just get back together to recapture their glory days.

This weekend, Shanti Groove will re-join forces to play select shows in the Boulder/Denver market. In the band's heyday, the group toured the U.S. and sold out concerts around the country.

There's still a demand for Shanti Groove's music -- more than 60,000 fans have downloaded the group's live shows on the Internet.

Bassist Juri Freeman was happy to discuss the band's reunion dates:

Q: How did Shanti Groove get started ?

A: We got the band together around 1999-2000. We met at bluegrass picks and festivals -- we'd go to places like RockyGrass in Lyons and Nedfest. We realized we all liked the same songs and it grew from there.

Q: The band started out playing bluegrass -- where did the music go from there?

A: We started out playing bluegrass music on acoustic instruments. As we played more shows, we added electric instruments and more improvisation. It became more rock than bluegrass.

Q: What kind of jams and improvisation did Shanti Groove thrive on?

A: We like to play songs, but we do try to have some 15-minute improvisational jams. It all depends on where we're playing. If we're playing a bluegrass festival we'll keep it short, but at some festivals we didn't start playing until 2 a.m. in the morning! We'd definitely be improvising at those shows!

Q: What were the highlights of the band's touring days?

A: We started playing places like the Mountain Sun, and we went on to play the Fox and Boulder Theater. We started out doing little tours -- by the end of 2006 we were playing over 150 shows a year. We did some tours with Leftover Salmon, performed with Bela Fleck and played some big music festivals like High Sierra and Wakarusa.

Q: What was the best place the band played?

A: Alaska was one of the best places we played. Our music really worked well there. We'd attract 1,000 to 2,000 people to the shows. We got to play Anchorage, went hiking and river rafting, and got see this beautiful country.

Q: What happened to the band?

A: We came really close to getting a record deal. A producer flew us to Nashville to do a record, but we never got signed. We tried our hardest -- either way it was a great experience. We played our last gigs in 2006.

Q: Why a reunion this week?

A: Everyone was in town at the same time, so we decided to do this run of shows. We've always had a good group of friends that would come out to the shows and we always have fun with the audiences. We'll be playing Quixote's in Denver Friday, the Mountain Sun in Boulder Sunday and the Southern Sun on Monday.