They’re coming in and they’re coming in hot — tune in to Greta Van Fleet; this Grammy Award Winning Rock band formed in 2012, consisting of the three brothers Kiszka: Jake (vocals), Samuel (guitarist), Joshua (bassist), and friend and drummer, Danny Wagner.

The band’s name sake originates from a Frankenmuth, MI town elder, Gretna Van Fleet. Looking through old town archives, the band found her name and — without even asking Ms. Van Fleet — dubbed themselves Greta Van Fleet, dropping the “n” in ‘Gretna.’ Later, eighty-year-old Gretna Van Fleet, impressed with the band’s talent but not so much with their genre, gave the band her blessing to use her name.

Influenced by their parent’s vinyl albums, Greta Van Fleet’s bluesy rock and roll vibe resurrects a popular 1970s sound, a sound often  compared to Led Zeppelin. Jimmy Page, Pete Townshend, and Robert Plant are also said to be influences for their music, as well.

In addition to their heavy metal sound, song lyrics, which are written by all four band members, are works of poetry that often incorporate themes of love and loss and employ Biblical references as in these lines from “Lover, Leaver”: “Witch on Endor raised. / Saul would fall to his knees, watch the fire blaze.” Upon first hearing Van Fleet, listeners may only hear a man screaming with some drums and bass in the background, but upon further exploration, listeners can find a deeper meaning behind the lyrics and discover the true beauty of their music.

Coming a long way from their humble origins in the Kiszka’s family garage, Van Fleet has experienced fame fairly quickly for a band whose members’ range in age from 19 to 22 years old.  This year, Greta Van Fleet was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance, New Artist and won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album. The closest Greta Van Fleet will be to the Twin Cities is their performance in Madison, WI, on June 4, 2019, Breese Stevens Field.