Past Events

Sarah Morris has a habit of missing the forest. From the day the Minneapolis based singer-songwriter picked up a guitar, armed with the bone-deep memory of her parents’ well-loved record collection and rooted in the storytelling fire of a Mary Chapin Carpenter tune, she’s been too busy crafting love letters to the details of the trees. Sarah’s endearingly honest, expertly penned songs encourage audiences to pull away from the big picture and get caught up in the magic of our everyday minutia, the rainy day ache in her sunlit voice granting us permission to escape into stories at once hauntingly familiar and uniquely her own.

The Hook & Ladder Theater is very proud to present an intimate live streaming event celebrating the Live At tHe Hook Vol II album release and the 93 (1/2) year-old birthday of the Twin City legendary performer, James Samuel ‘Cornbread’ Harris Sr. with he and his band of Friends playing a very special concert!

The Black-eyed Snakes, a genre-bending electric blues band from Duluth, Minnesota! Alan Sparhawk (LOW, Retribution Gospel Choir) formed the Black-eyed Snakes in 2000 with Bob Olson on guitar and Brad Nelson on drums. The following year the outfit was named Minnesota’s Best New Band by Minneapolis’ City Pages. “In his beat-thwacking, voice-distorting, primal blooze threesome,” wrote Peter Scholtes about the award, “he has something to tell us, and it goes a little something like this: ‘People, have you heard of a better day?’ … ‘That’s called hope.’ … Black Eyed Snakes fans seem caught up in that old Minnesota yearning for a Southern blur of intemperance and contrition, Saturday night and Sunday morning rolled into one.”

Davina and The Vagabonds offer “a modern take on old-time blues and jazz” (PennLive). They’ve created a stir on the national music scene with their high-energy live shows, level A musicianship, sharp-dressed professionalism, and Davina’s commanding stage presence. With influences ranging from Fats Domino and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band to Aretha Franklin and Tom Waits, the band is converting audiences one show at a time.

The vision for Twin Cities Virtual Gospel Takeover was sparked by the need for peace and unity in the Twin Cities. With the uprising of racial discrimination, police brutality, an increasing rate of homicides in the Twin Cities and more, just in the year, 2020. In addition to the entertainment industry taking a fall due to COVID-19. Thus the world being in, shelter-in-place. Jerome Treadwell has a heart for Christ and passion for bringing together communities while providing opportunities for his fellow brothers and sisters in music. In light of the need for peace, unity, and opportunity Jerome has curated the Twin Cities Virtual Gospel Takeover which is destined to be a blessing to the artist and the viewer from home while giving glory and praise to God.

Kind music for kind people. Kind Country is a Minneapolis based band that plays American standards as well as their own brand of Cosmic American music. Since their formation in 2012, the band has focused on creating live performances with high levels of improvisation and energy gathering with a goal of creating a moment of musical bliss that can be shared by audience members and band alike.

The Belfast Cowboys are a nine-piece band that specializes in the music of Van Morrison. They have become one of Minnesota's (and The Hook & Ladder's) most popular bands, traveling only when their feet get itchy or the offer is too good to refuse. The band features several veterans of the Minneapolis music scene, including singer Terry Walsh and sax man Vic Volare.