The return of the Alabama Shakes

Something had started to move at the end of last year, when news came to 2024 that the Alabama Shakes They had returned to perform after more than seven years. To inaugurate the new year, the confirmation had then arrived that the band had entered the recording studio to work on new music. Now it is official: the trio formed by Brittany Howard, Heath Fogg and Zac Cockrell He is back. To sanction the return of the Alabama Shakes is the New single “Another Life”published today – 29 August – ten years after the latest album “Sound & Color” (here our review) of 2015.

The return with “Another Life”

“When I wrote ‘Another Life’, I thought of all the lives we bring with us,” said Shakes’ singer and guitarist in a statement, Brittany Howard:

“Those we are experiencing now, those who escaped due to different choices, the ‘What would have happened if’, what was not destiny, the goodbyes and the random encounters that seem divine. This song speaks of those threads and how they tend to be through time and space, connecting every version of what we are. It concerns the letting of meet, that they harmonize, and to realize that goodbye is not really good. After a collective story that never stops taking place.

In addition to a record return, for the Alabama Shakes “Another Life” means A real beginning: is the group’s first song that comes out for the New Island labelafter publishing the first two records – “Boys and Girls” of 2012 and “Sound & Color” of 2015 – for the smallest and most independent Ato Records.

While the nostalgia It is in all respects that has become a powerful marketing tool, with the reunion of the Alabama Shakes There seems to be much more in the game. And the new single “Another Life” comes to confirm it. Since the beginning, the group has tried to get rid of the perception of being anchored to recover the past, which the public risked moving on to him. Conscious of their influences that crossed different attitudes, periods and genres, the Alabama Shakes had been able to experiment and hit in the mark. Now, after a long pause, the original formation of Athens, Alabama, seems truly free from past pressure, sounds with a certain adult conviction, e “Another life” looks to the future.

The break, the solo projects and the return

Shortly after the victory of a new Grammy thanks to their interpretation of “Killer Diller Blue” in the film “The American Epic Sessions”, in 2018 the Alabama Shakes decided to pause the project To allow Brittany Howard to focus on his first solo album, then published in 2019 with the title “Jaime”. The singer was not the only member of the group to devote himself to Projects outside the band. The following year, the guitarist Heath Fogg also set up his first solo project with the name Sun on Shade. While in the following years the drummer Steve Johnson had to face many problems with justice, in February 2024, Howard released his second solo album, “What Now”, fully approved by critics and promoted with a long tour, which included performances at Coachellaal Glastonbury Festival and al Bonnaroo Festival. In one Training now reduced to a trio Composed of Brittany Howard, Heath Fogg and the bassist Zac Cockrell, the Alabama Shakes are officially gathered in public on 18 December 2024 For a surprise performance at the Bama Theater in Tuscalosa, Alabama. The performance officially kicked off to the new course of the band, which the following February even announced his First tour in eight yearsscheduled for July to September 2025. As declared in a note released to announce the tour, the band has therefore confirmed that he is ready to publish new music, this time as a trio, without Johnson, who is no longer part of the training because of his legal problems. “Last year, Heath, Zac and I found ourselves chatting on how fun it would have been to go back to making music together and playing live like Alabama Shakes. This band and these songs have been for all of us immense joy,” said Howard: “It is crazy to think that 10 years have passed since the release of ‘sound & color’ and eight years from the last concert. future as on the past. We therefore have a lot of new music that will be published soon“.

After the return single, “Another Life”, already presented for the first time live last July 15 in Chicago and now fixed in the concert lineup, there is certainly much other material to be expected from the Alabama Shakes.

During the current tour The band is not sparing itself in presenting other new songs liveincluding “American Dream” and “Someday”. All that remains is to wait for the announcement of the new Albun.