Brittany Howard, of Alabama Shakes, Talks with David Remnick

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

News, Wnyc, David, Arts, Yorker, Society & Culture, Storytelling, Books, New, Remnick, Politics

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 September 2019

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Alabama Shakes started out playing covers at local gigs but quickly found a unique personal voice rooted in rock and soul. The band came to national attention, found a wide and devoted public, and soon earned four Grammys, for the album “Sound and Color.” But after that record, their second, Brittany Howard—who sings, plays guitar, and writes songs for the group—announced that she was putting Alabama Shakes on hiatus, to work on a solo album. “We sat and we talked about it for several hours; we sat in a circle,” she recalls. “At the end of the conversation, everybody was, like, ‘O.K., we understand. We get it.’ They gave me their blessing to go on and find what I needed to find or create what I needed to create.” Howard gathered a different group of musicians, including the keyboard superstar Robert Glasper, to back her up on a solo album, called “Jamie.” It’s named after Howard’s late sister, but it’s very much about the singer herself—her passions, her concerns, and her upbringing, in Athens, Alabama. Is this, David Remnick asks, the end of Alabama Shakes? “I don’t know,” Howard says, after a pause. “Wherever creativity leads my ship, I can’t force it. That’s the thing. Once I start forcing it, it’s not going to be no good, anyway.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	from one world trade center in manhattan this is the new yorker radio hour a co-production of the new yorker and w n y c studios this is the new yorker radio hour i'm david remnick.
0:28.9	Sometimes Britney Howard's voice is so smooth.
0:31.0	It's just a hot knife through butter.
0:35.1	And sometimes there's so much gravel in it that she sounds like some of her elders like Edda James and Amy Winehouse.
0:39.5	Howard has been the front woman of the Alabama Shakes for about a decade now.
0:44.0	The group started as a cover band playing around the state of Alabama, and pretty quickly
0:48.1	it came to national attention and a handful of Grammys.
0:52.6	But after two albums with the Alabama Shakes,
0:55.5	Howard has gathered a different group of musicians
0:57.7	to release a solo album called Jamie.
1:01.5	The album is named after Brittany Howard's late sister,
1:04.6	but it's very much about the singer herself,
1:06.8	about her passions, her concerns,
1:09.3	and her hard upbringing in Athens, Alabama.
1:12.6	I'd love to start out by talking about the music that formed you.
1:17.2	I know that you listen to music at the kitchen table with all kinds of relatives.
1:23.5	When you listen to your childhood, when you hear it through the mists of time, what music are you listening to? What are you hearing?
1:32.7	Well, I think about, like, Joe to see, think about Usher way back when. I think about TLC and Destiny's Child and all the pop groups.
1:43.7	I also think about my grandma in the kitchen, cutting onions, listening to
1:47.4	doo-wop music.
1:49.2	And think about Prince.
1:51.7	Think about Pufunk.
	...

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