Hook & Ladder Theater and Minnesota Music Coalition come together to feature amazing Minnesota talent across a variety of genres. Join us monthly (Every 4th Thursday) to catch some of your favorites as well as some musicians you may not have seen yet!

 

Since forming in northeast Minneapolis in 2006, The High 48s have been making music that combines the soulful sound of classic bluegrass with a modern attitude.They’re a band with one foot in tradition and the other in the world of music today, and one of the few who can find an overlooked bluegrass classic in a song by M. Ward or the Clash then throw down hard on a standard by Bill Monroe.

The High 48s are also a band of songwriters. Here, too, they take a modern approach, heeding the well-worn advice to writers: write what you know. Their songs ring true to their everyday lives as northern city-folk rather than an imagined “sweet, sunny south” of coal mines and dark hollers.

 

Eli Gardiner was born and raised in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He started to write songs while still in high school. Making stops in Iowa and Virginia before making his way to the Twin Cities. His latest album, The Fire and The Medicine, was produced and recorded with Greg Schutte (Mickey Hart, Ryan Bingham, Chastity Brown) His music has been featured on The Current, WCCO radio, and BOB Country, among others.

 

“Eli Gardiner has a voice that conveys the pieces inside of us that can’t always speak. Relatable, soulful, and honest, his songwriting is structured in observations. He’s a modern voice to old problems that continue to haunt our society.”
-Music In Minnesota

 “It showcases excellent guitar work, complementing Gardiner’s fine vocal, which is full of character and soul. ”
— Americana UK

 

Members Tony Ortiz (guitar, vocals), Rosa Gaona (vocals), Randy Wideman (guitar, vocals) and Cathy Pineiro (vocals) are all mainstays of the Minnesota music scene and together craft an infectious, soul-infused Americana. When The 4 Corners sing together, their voices – each with a distinctive timbre and complementary range – blend in a flavorful way, forming a soulful sound that is both distinctive and familiar.