“more familial and relevant than ever….a warm, campfire-y vibe, even as certain songs take a fiery stance on current social issues.” –Star Tribune

“Americana to fight fascism.” -Adobe & Teardrops

Minnesota folk/country cult favorites The Gated Community release their highly anticipated new album Goodbye Work. Celebrating their 20th year of making musically adventurous songs that are both playful and political, the band follows up on their lauded 2023 release The Honor and Glory of The Gated Community with a polished Americana album that proves this 6-piece lineup has solidified into a top-notch band that would sound great sandwiched between fellow Minneapolis greats The Jayhawks and Trampled By Turtles.

Their most collaborative effort yet, the album features each of the band members singing lead vocals. For the first time, founding member and bassist Cody Johnson takes a turn on leads, singing on one of the standout tracks “Took In.” Drummer Paul Hatlelid sings “Petty,” while lead guitarist Nate Knutson sings “What I Hate” and his original “Weed Smoke and Worry.” The rest of the lead vocal duties are shared amongst the band’s familiar singers Sumanth Gopinath (guitar, keyboards), Rosie Harris (banjo, cello) and Beth Hartman (percussion).

“Given the way the lead vocals are traded around on this recording, the effect is something of sharing songs in a song circle or campfire sing-along,” says lead songwriter Sumanth Gopinath. “But there are so many harmony vocals and a group cohesion in each performance, that it doesn’t sound like a bunch of random musicians. It feels like a true collective.”

Continuing to expand their sound and vision, the band members have taken on new instruments in the band with Sumanth playing keyboards and glockenspiel and Rosie playing more banjo. And while Sumanth continues to write most of the songs, this release shows that this eclectic group of players can come together to create something magical that never fails to surprise or shy away from pertinent political subjects – as in the songs “All Wrong” (homelessness), “Bunker” (the Russian invasion), and “Cornelia” (slavery and racial injustice). The best example might be “Goodbye Work,” which was written about the tension between hating one’s job and desperately needing it to survive. But when they submitted a live video of them performing the song for NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert on February 10, 2025, it had a very different feel.

“People viewed it as being about the current Trump administration’s attacks on noncitizen and migrant workers in the US,” Sumanth says. “Indeed, lines like ‘I will be at the back of the van’ speak directly to that scenario – of being arrested and detained in ICE holding facilities in the US and abroad.”

Whether taking on these hard topics or taking on lighter notes (as in “Hand in the Air” or “Took In”), Goodbye Work cements The Gated Community’s place as one of the most socially relevant and original bands making music today.

ABOUT THE GATED COMMUNITY

In 2006 South Asian-American Yale graduate and political activist Sumanth Gopinath started a country/bluegrass band in Minneapolis called The Gated Community. Influenced by his dad’s classic country record collection and modern Americana bands like The Flatlanders, the band mixes folk, bluegrass and country music with a raw, rock edge.

Born in Chicago, Sumanth’s family relocated to Slidell, Louisiana when he was nine. “At first, my brother and I hated the place. We consciously decided not to adopt southern accents, but we were of course surrounded by them, and by contemporary country music,” he recalls. Later, as a grad student at Yale he fell under the musical mentorship of fellow graduate student and Chapel Hill, North Carolina country/bluegrass veteran Rob Slifkin, who introduced him to the music of classic Americana artists. Sumanth’s songwriting quickly blossomed in country music—a genre he’d shunned since his days in Slidell. “Playing a form of country and getting to ‘play southern’ became a form of therapy, a way of dealing with all of the unpleasant bullying, racism, and social dislocation that I experienced while growing up in Louisiana.”

In 2005, Sumanth moved from New Haven to Minneapolis to begin working as a professor of music theory at the University of Minnesota. There he would meet fellow faculty members and grad students with whom he would form The Gated Community – a delightfully raucous country band whose lively shows and pointed social commentary quickly gained a cult following in the Twin Cities. Although the band began as a vehicle for Sumanth’s frequently political songs, the band has evolved over the last 19 years, expanding in size and scope to include many roots music styles and more personal songwriting. Now featuring six singers, the band combines professors like Sumanth (vocals, acoustic guitar, keyboards) and Beth Hartman (vocals, percussion), and artists from various parts of the Twin Cities scene like Rosie Harris (vocals, banjo, cello), Paul Hatlelid (vocals, drums, acoustic guitar), Cody Johnson (vocals, bass), and Nate Knutson (vocals, guitars, mandolin). This current lineup has been featured on their last two albums – The Honor and Glory of The Gated Community (2023) and Goodbye Work (2025) – showing the band “stepping out of their Marxist bluegrass novelty band box to create emotionally complex songs” (Dispatch).

About the interesting mix of people in the band, Sumanth says “Even though I have strong social ties to the academic world, I don’t like hanging out only with academics. I prefer to work with people from all walks of life—whether they be union organizers, office workers, or full-time artists.” Although the band members’ interests are indeed varied (kids, dogs, photography, books, cooking, community organizing), they all love music, travel and exploring historic sights while on the road.

Summing up the band’s commitment to being a band of and for the people, The Gated Community continues to stay true to its mission – to pursue the ideals of the American dream as expressed and embodied in the form of country music.

For more information and the latest tour dates, please visit www.thegatedcommunityband.com.