{"id":437347,"date":"2026-08-19T14:30:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T14:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/437347\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T14:30:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T14:30:24","slug":"alabama-shakes-are-rocks-generational-bridge-that-wont-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/437347\/","title":{"rendered":"Alabama Shakes are rock’s generational bridge that won’t break"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The first time Alabama Shakes came to Los Angeles, Brittany Howard bought a longboard. This was in the early 2010s, as the fiery soul-rock band was beginning its ascent from a small town in the Deep South to high-profile gigs at the Grammy Awards and the White House; even back then, the group was generating so much energy onstage that Howard found it useful to have an outlet after shows to \u201ckind of come down,\u201d as the singer and guitarist puts it now.<\/p>\n

Does she still skate?<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d she says with a laugh. \u201cLittle bit older \u2014 don\u2019t want to fall and break stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bones are feeling brittle?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bones are feeling strong,\u201d she replies. \u201cI just don\u2019t want to test them.\u201d<\/p>\n

A decade and a half after that initial visit, Howard and her fellow Shakes \u2014 guitarist Heath Fogg and bassist Zac Cockrell \u2014 are back in L.A. on a recent afternoon, gathered in a West Hollywood hotel suite to discuss their new album, \u201cI Must Be Dreaming.\u201d Due out Aug. 28, it\u2019s the band\u2019s first LP since the three reconvened in 2024 after a seven-year break, during which Howard launched an acclaimed solo career that encompassed collaborations with Bon Iver and the Oscar-winning film composer Ludwig G\u00f6ransson<\/a>. Nothing too dramatic broke up the Shakes in 2018, nor has their return been accompanied by much hoopla (beyond their decision not to invite back drummer Steve Johnson, which we\u2019ll get to in a minute).<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know about \u2018comeback,\u2019\u201d Howard says when asked what term best describes the band\u2019s reunion. \u201cWhat y\u2019all think?\u201d she asks Fogg and Cockrell, both of whom respond with quiet shrugs.<\/p>\n

Yet \u201cI Must Be Dreaming\u201d reveals a group still thrumming with creative purpose. The music, which takes up love and nature and a society in peril, expands the Shakes\u2019 rootsy sound in funky and unexpected directions; instead of a throwback from a band whose last album came out at the tail end of the Obama era, the record feels like a product of our darker, more anxious age. It also frames the Shakes, all in their late 30s or early 40s, as a kind of generational bridge between influential Gen X groups like Radiohead<\/a> and Wilco<\/a> and adventurous Gen Z up-and-comers such as Geese and Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we wanted the same things,\u201d Howard sings over Cockrell\u2019s creeping bass line in the murky \u201cAmerican Dream,\u201d which goes on to enumerate some of those would-be ideals \u2014 peace, happiness, opportunity, freedom \u2014 before Howard checks herself: \u201cI must be dreaming.\u201d In \u201cAnother Life,\u201d Fogg\u2019s guitar trembles and clangs as Howard muses on the cosmic ramifications of a broken relationship; \u201cTea Time\u201d finds the singer known for her belting vocals exploring her more delicate falsetto against a spooky, lopsided beat that evokes the music of the late J Dilla<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Susan Tedeschi, another powerful belter whose Tedeschi Trucks Band will co-headline a handful of dates this month with Alabama Shakes, says Howard has \u201cdefinitely created her own style,\u201d which she reckons has resonated beyond rock to open pathways for young soul singers like Olivia Dean.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s not afraid to talk about what it\u2019s like growing up biracial or what it\u2019s like growing up as a gay woman,\u201d Tedeschi adds. \u201cIt takes courage to do these things, especially nowadays.\u201d<\/p>\n

Howard, who grew up fishing and writing poetry in rural Athens, Ala., formed Alabama Shakes with Cockrell, a former high-school classmate, in 2009; at the time, the singer had to schedule band practices around her job as a mail carrier. The group\u2019s 2012 debut, \u201cBoys & Girls,\u201d drew comparisons to Tina Turner and Janis Joplin and earned the Shakes a Grammy nomination for best new artist; Jack White took them on tour as an opening act while President Obama invited the band to take part in an all-star tribute to Memphis soul music.<\/p>\n

\"Brittany <\/p>\n

Brittany Howard.<\/p>\n

(Evan Mulling \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cSound & Color,\u201d which came out in 2015, was somewhat artier but met with even greater success, topping Billboard\u2019s album chart and winning three Grammys. At that year\u2019s Lollapalooza festival in Chicago, no less an admirer than Paul McCartney brought Howard onstage to help him sing the Beatles\u2019 \u201cGet Back.\u201d After a few more years of touring, though, the band split primarily so Howard could pursue her solo work<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yet by late 2024 \u2014 not long after she\u2019d dropped an LP, \u201cWhat Now,\u201d inspired in part by a divorce \u2014 the singer had started thinking about the Shakes again. So when a friend in Tuscaloosa asked her to play a benefit concert that December, she used the opportunity to reach out to Fogg and Cockrell.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just like, \u2018Do y\u2019all want to go down there and play some songs?\u2019\u201d Howard remembers. \u201cAnd they were like, \u2018Hell yeah.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Says the soft-spoken Cockrell of the gig: \u201cIt was pretty rocking.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the band\u2019s hiatus, the members had scattered slightly, with Fogg in north Alabama, Cockrell in Nashville and Howard just outside the country-music capital. Neither Tennessee resident cops to having much interest in Nashville\u2019s glitzy Lower Broadway district, where tourists stumble from one bar owned by a name-brand country star to another.<\/p>\n

Whose joint would they hit if forced?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe emptiest one,\u201d Howard answers. \u201cWhoever\u2019s having the poorest business, I\u2019d go to that one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pleased by the response to the show in Tuscaloosa, the Shakes booked a lengthy tour with stops at the Hollywood Bowl and New York\u2019s Forest Hills Stadium. Justin Eshak, the Island Records co-chief who signed the Shakes after putting out \u201cWhat Now,\u201d says going into business with the reactivated band was a no-brainer.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the stuff that came out around the same time the Shakes broke feels very of that time to me,\u201d Eshak says. \u201cWhereas Brittany and this band sort of exist in their own universe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet the reunion proceeded without Johnson, the band\u2019s founding drummer, who\u2019d pleaded guilty in 2020 to violating a domestic violence protection order and who was arrested in 2021 on charges of child abuse. The charges were later dismissed \u2014 Johnson\u2019s lawyer said they stemmed from a \u201cspanking incident\u201d \u2014 but the Shakes asked for the drummer\u2019s resignation around the time of his arrest, according to a series of videos Johnson posted last year on Facebook (as reported<\/a> by AL.com).<\/p>\n

Howard says that while the band was inactive, \u201cWe decided we weren\u2019t gonna move forward with Steve. So with us coming back together, that wasn\u2019t really part of the equation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether Johnson\u2019s legal issues made them think differently about the band\u2019s history, the three band members go silent for a moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Steve, there\u2019s a lot of things that have been public about his life,\u201d Fogg says. \u201cSome are true, some aren\u2019t true \u2014 he\u2019s been proven innocent in court for some things. That\u2019s not publicized. I think we\u2019re bonded with Steve in a way because of things we\u2019ve done in the past, and I think we all care about Steve and want him to be happy and healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a new drummer in Noah Bond, Alabama Shakes recorded \u201cI Must Be Dreaming\u201d in Nashville with producer Shawn Everett, who collaborated with Howard on her solo records and who\u2019s worked in the studio with Adele and Miley Cyrus, among many others.<\/p>\n

Howard says that figuring out what she wanted to talk about in her new songs took some time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of like I had to access what was percolating because part of me was looking at the world and feeling a little shut down, as anyone would be,\u201d she says. \u201cHaving to open back up and access my feelings was quite the experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her lyrics for \u201cAmerican Dream\u201d were inspired by a track Cockrell sent her that felt \u201csludgy and hard to wade through,\u201d as she puts it, which brought to mind her concerns about the environment at a moment when President Trump is cutting regulations regarding climate and energy. (The song name-checks both the Environmental Protection Agency and a \u201cpretty and pimped out\u201d White House.)<\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

\"Heath <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

\"Zac <\/p>\n

1. Heath Fogg. 2. Zac Cockrell. (Evan Mulling \/ For The Times) <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s supposed to be this social agreement between us and our government, and I feel like they\u2019ve broken the social agreement,\u201d Howard says. \u201cThen we\u2019re supposed to keep pretending we\u2019re in la-la land and everything\u2019s gonna be great. And I just don\u2019t think that\u2019s realistic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those misgivings come through in the frayed edges of the band\u2019s handmade sound on \u201cI Must Be Dreaming\u201d \u2014 a welcome approach when AI is quickly making its way into music along with every other creative field.<\/p>\n

Fogg admits he\u2019s \u201cvery negative\u201d on the new technology, which he sees being used by musicians who try to reverse-engineer songs created by platforms like Suno and Udio. \u201cMy whole thing is: When you use generative AI to come up with ideas, people forget what ideas were theirs and what ideas were the computer\u2019s,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a very slippery slope.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a new iPhone the other day,\u201d Howard pipes up, \u201cand it has this feature on it where it will read my text and then text somebody back for you. The f\u2014 is that? Do people use this?\u201d She shakes her head.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, I don\u2019t want a bajillion data centers poisoning the earth,\u201d she says. \u201cBut it\u2019s also like: What even is art if it\u2019s something that could just be generated?\u201d<\/p>\n

With the new LP on the way, the band will lean further into those human qualities on the road, including a performance in late September at Eddie Vedder\u2019s annual Ohana festival in Dana Point. Yet beyond the dates they have scheduled or in the works, they\u2019re not quite sure what the future holds for a back-in-action Alabama Shakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t really discussed it,\u201d Howard says. \u201cI think we\u2019ll just have that conversation when the time arises.\u201d<\/p>\n

Are they hopeful at least that they\u2019ll achieve what they want to before the robots take over?<\/p>\n

\u201cMan, I\u2019m not gonna be a good robot servant at all,\u201d Howard says. \u201cI don\u2019t know how to do nothing but this. Robots don\u2019t eat fish, so I can\u2019t fish for them, you know what I\u2019m saying? I\u2019m screwed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Alabama <\/p>\n

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