Early Day Miners is a self-described "musical cooperative" from Bloomington, IN. The group's core members are Daniel Burton, Rory Leitch (both formerly of Ativin), and Joseph Brumley, but the trio enlists a revolving cast of friends for recordings and live performances.

The combo's first release was the seven-song, 49-minute Placer Found, which emerged in 2000 on Western Vinyl. Let Us Garlands Bring was released in 2002 on Secretly Canadian Records, and Early Day Miners continued with 2003's Jefferson at Rest and 2005's All Harm Ends Here. The next year, the six-song Offshoot, which was originally conceived to be a part of Let Us Garlands Bring and featured the production work of Tortoise's John McEntire, was released.

The core members of Early Day Miners aren't songwriters as much as they are moodwriters. Plenty of memorable tunes pepper their albums, and the group does include some vocal tracks in their compositions. Still, what's most impressive about Early Day Miners is their ability to turn sounds into something more - pictures, emotions, geographic locations - all with the simple, well-timed use of instruments.

- Andrew Leahey