The Lumineers

The Lumineers are a Denver trio whose breakthrough 2012 smash hit "Ho Hey," helped them become one of the leading lights of the indie folk movement. Over the next several years, they found widespread success due to their spirited live shows and organic blend of rock, folk, and Americana styles. Their multi-platinum, Grammy-nominated debut The Lumineers paved the way for the chart-topping 2016 follow-up Cleopatra and 2022's sprightly Brightside. Their first and second concert albums, Live at Wrigley Field and Live from Wrigley Field, appeared in 2024.

The roots of the band can be traced back to the East Coast where, in 2005, founding members Wesley Schultz (vocals, guitar) and Jeremiah Fraites (drums, percussion) began working together in a variety of different New York City bands. By 2009 they'd become more serious and chosen to relocate to the unlikely musical hub of Denver, Colorado, where they met cellist and multi-instrumentalist Neyla Pekarek. The success of their self-titled 2011 EP earned them a management deal, and they soon decamped to Seattle to record their debut album with producer Ryan Hadlock. Prior to the album's release, the catchy "Ho Hey" single began picking up steam in influential radio markets, and by the time Dualtone released the Lumineers' self-titled LP in April 2012, they'd amassed considerable buzz. Buoyed by "Ho Hey" and the subsequent single "Stubborn Love" (a song later revealed to be on President Obama's iPod playlist), the album eventually peaked at number two on the Billboard Top 200 and earned them two Grammy nominations. A whirlwind of touring occupied the next two years as the Lumineers' profile continued to rise. Schultz and Fraites were pegged to ghostwrite "The Hanging Tree," a folk song used in the 2014 Jennifer Lawrence film The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Pt. 1. By 2016 they'd completed work on their follow-up album, Cleopatra, which was released in April of that year, reaching number one in the U.S., U.K., and Canada. Following their own world tour, the Lumineers were asked by U2 to join the North American leg of their Joshua Tree anniversary tour.

In the summer of 2018, the band issued the three-track C-Sides EP on Decca, and contributed a song "Visions of China" to the television show The Walking Dead, and in April 2019 they released "Gloria," the first single from their aptly named third studio LP III. A song cycle depicting the tolls of addiction structured as three separate chapters, III arrived later that September. The group embarked on a lengthy world tour to support the album, which ended in March 2020. Schultz released a solo album of acoustic covers titled Vignettes in October of 2020, then the band ventured back out on the road in mid-2021. They were also working on another album during this time, laying down tracks at Sun Mountain Studios in Boiceville, New York with Simone Felice producing (the producer for both Cleopatra and III). Schultz and Fraites handled the bulk of the instruments on 2022's Brightside, though they were augmented by the album's engineer David Baron, touring bandmembers Byron Isaacs and Lauren Jacobson, and vocalist Cindy Mizelle. The album reached number six on the Billboard 200 and the group returned to concert stages soon after, playing a string of dates in Europe and the U.K. The 2024 EP, Leading Ladies, compiled tracks from earlier releases, each one honoring a different historical or fictional woman from throughout the band's catalog. Later that year, the Lumineers issued their first and second concert albums, Live from Wrigley Field and Live at Wrigley Field. ~ Timothy Monger