Wednesday, February 8th 2012

News:  Alabama Shakes

Introducing Alabama Shakes: Southern Soul Rides Again

By Jason Shane

Anticipation for the Alabama Shakes’ debut album has gone from a simmer to a boil since this little band of Southern soul revivalists started to make noise last year and put out a self-titled EP chock full of bluesy throwback jams. The band’s sound evokes images of Otis Redding and Janis Joplin, with singer Brittany Howard’s throwback tones acting as an emotional, driving force.

Slowly gaining steam toward becoming media darlings, the Shakes have a cross-gender, cross-generational, cross-racial, and cross-genre appeal that’s simply irresistible. Without the benefit of a label or even a full-length album, they have risen from an unknown band to playing a live session at Jack White’s Third Man Studios in Nashville and, as of last night, dropping by Conan.

Despite their ever-growing list of famous fans, it wasn’t long ago that the band was a small time band from Athens, Alabama, unable to get shows in their own hometown. The seeds of the Alabama Shakes and their raw and dirty soul sound were sewn in a psychology class at Athens’ East Limestone High School in 2007, when Howard (who also plays guitar) approached Zac Cockrell about playing together, knowing he played bass and wore shirts of good, obscure bands. The two started jamming at Howard’s house, crafting a mostly “rootsy feel,” according to the singer.

The duo eventually recruited Steve Johnson, who worked at a local record store and whom Howard describes as being “kind of a punk-metal drummer.” The newly-formed trio found their way into the studio to record a bare-bones demo, which ended up in the hands of Heath Fogg, a 2003 graduate of East Limestone. After playing one show with the band in 2009 (opening for his other band at the time), Fogg joined what was originally dubbed simply the Shakes.

The band headed into a Nashville studio in early 2011, recording six songs. While in Nashville they played a show at a record store, and it just so happened that a friend of Aquarium Drunkard’s Justin Gage was in attendance. Howard eventually got Gage a copy of the band’s sweet and soulful You Ain’t Alone, and also shipped a copy to Patterson Hood of the Drive By Truckers.

Then, the floodgates opened.

The Alabama Shakes got an opening slot with DBT, tore up clubs from coast-to-coast, released a four-song self-titled EP in September, and played the CMJ Festival in New York. By October 2011, Jack White had caught wind of the band and invited them to play a live session at his Third Man Records studio.

The band’s first single, Hold On, is alternately mellow and rousing, all the while soaring behind Howard’s achingly gorgeous voice, and the band’s extremely tight sound, bolstered by Howard and Fogg’s guitar interplay:

The song found its way onto a number of year-end lists, and the Alabama Shakes were named one of NPR Music’s Favorite New Artists of 2011 and MTV’s Artists to Watch in 2012.

On Hold On and the rest of the band’s catalogue, Brittany Howard’s voice is something to behold. Soulful, soaring, and fresh – what the band describes as “raw human lung power” – she has no contemporary. Some might compare her to Adele or the recently deceased Amy Winehouse, but Howard is less polished and more vibrant and real. The only proper comparison is to voices of years-past, both male and female – Otis Redding, Janis Joplin, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin.

Throughout their whirlwind year, Howard and the rest of the Alabama Shakes continued to record, eventually putting together 11-songs for their debut album, Boys & Girls, which comes out April 10 in the States and April 9 internationally on Rough Trade Records.

The band recently posted a video on Myspace (no really, Myspace) entitled, “Meet the Alabama Shakes,” and the few songs in the video (including Mama, and which were all recorded at the band’s secret show at New York City’s Lakeside Lounge back in December) are dirty Southern R&B:

There are strains of soul, blues, and rock in everything this band does. On Thursday, they performed a live session on NPR’s World Cafe and did a pretty mean cover of Led Zeppelin’s How Many More Times:

Howard’s take on this classic Robert Plant performance is undeniably spot-on. She and the band have apparently been playing Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, James Brown, Otis Redding, AC/DC, and Rage Against The Machine covers since their earliest days, and this broad range of influences shines brightly in their music.

If you’re lucky enough to live in one of these cities, you can catch the tail end of Alabama Shakes’ current tour:

Feb. 4 Boulder, CO – Fox Theater
Feb. 22 London, UK – Boston Arms
Feb. 23 London, UK – Boston Arms
Feb. 24 London, UK – Boston Arms
Mar. 9 Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
Mar. 10 Milwaukee, WI – Pabst Theater
Mar. 23 Tuscaloosa, AL – Bama Theater
Mar. 29 Oxford, MS – Proud Larry’s
Mar. 31 Birmingham, AL – Work Play Theater

Keep up with the Alabama Shakes at the following:

Official Site: http://www.alabamashakes.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/theAlabamaShakes

Twitter: http://twitter.com/Alabama_Shakes

Bandcamp: http://alabamashakes.bandcamp.com