Balto

Balto, a rock & roll ensemble based in Los Angeles, first took shape in the opening years of the 2010s through a grounded sound blending blues, folk, soul, and psych-rock. What began as the solitary outlet for traveling singer/songwriter Dan Sheron originated in New York before gaining traction in Portland, Oregon, where the group recorded its intense 2017 album Strangers. The relocation to Los Angeles near the decade’s close sparked further shifts, leading Sheron and his associates to pursue new directions via a 2021 covers EP alongside tracks such as the 2022 single “Spanish Wine.”

Balto’s beginnings reach back to an unexpected locale: Siberia. After an unsuccessful journalism assignment in Moscow, Sheron boarded a train for an introspective trek across Russia’s expansive northern region and returned with a collection of raw, emotionally direct songs. Those pieces formed the 2011 debut album October’s Road under the newly formed Balto banner. At first an acoustic solo effort supported by informal collaborators in New York, the project expanded after Sheron moved to Portland, Oregon in 2012. The Monuments EP introduced additional instrumentation to the roots-oriented approach, although it remained primarily a solo endeavor. Across the following years Sheron gradually shifted from solo performer to bandleader, establishing a tight circle of musicians for the 2015 three-song single Call It by Its Name, which presented Balto as a soulful rock quartet. Cuts such as “CA LUV” and “Born Astray” solidified the harder-edged style heard on the 2017 album Strangers.

Throughout this period Sheron maintained solo tours across Russia and Central Europe, issuing two vigorous Balto 7-inch singles in 2018—“Songs for Viktor” and “Black Snake Mojave Blues” b/w “Still Don't Know.” He soon settled in Los Angeles and assembled another version of the group. The “Magnet/Mind” single appeared in 2020, followed a year later by the lean covers EP From Them to Us, From Us to You, featuring renditions of material by the Zombies, Waylon Jennings, Warren Zevon, and others. In these sessions Balto collaborated with noted producers and engineers including Riley Geare and Kim Bullard, the first result being the 2022 single “Spanish Wine.”