Quiet dissolution: Why Alabama Shakes disappeared at the height of fame
At 11 years old, Brittany Howard was surrounded by despair. A couple of years earlier, she had lost her older sister to a rare form of cancer, which left her life feeling devoid of colour. “I didn’t believe in any higher power anymore,” she said, explaining the ways love and loss left her without any real experience of either. Howard had already lived many lives by the time she gained recognition as the lead vocalist of Alabama Shakes, but their sudden disappearance from the scene continues to immerse them in a certain level of mystery.
Howard’s musical sound and interests were well-established by the time she met Heath Fogg and Zac Cockrell through parties and school classes. While she had enjoyed playing music in the local area, mostly at house parties, The Shakes officially formed in 2009 after Howard graduated, this time with a drummer, Steve Johnson, who first heard Howard sing a few years prior.
Despite starting out with a handful of strong covers up their sleeve and an understated selection of lesser-known originals, The Shakes soon became Alabama Shakes and caught a record deal two years later in 2011, thanks to a music blogger who posted their song ‘You Ain’t Alone’ online. One year later, Boys & Girls landed the band in near-overnight success, and soon they were supporting acts like Jack White, growing bigger and bolder than Howard, or anyone in the group, for that matter, ever dreamed of.
Although the band’s second album, Sound & Colour, achieved the number one spot on the Billboard 200, many songs on Boys & Girls are still lauded as Alabama Shakes staples, like ‘Hold On’, the title track, and ‘On Your Way’, each of which shows off Howard’s inherent soulful crooning and her equally hard-hitting lyrics. ‘Hold On’, in particular, has remained a hit song and contains some of the most impressively introspective lyrics the genre has ever known, like: “Bless my heart, bless my soul / Didn’t think I’d make it to 22 years old”.
Sound & Color arrived after an intensive touring schedule, one that almost left the members without any creative energy. However, even without any clear direction and almost no motivation, the songs they made caught the attention of many big names and continue to provide inspiration to both aspiring musicians and well-established prodigies. Following a number of years of unwavering popularity, the band seemed to disappear without any clear reason as to why, other than Howard’s plans to go solo and an unfortunate allegation of domestic and child abuse in connection with drummer Johnson.
Why did Brittany Howard go solo?
It was confirmed that the band were to enter a hiatus from 2018 onwards due to Howard’s desire to work on her own album, Jaime, which was followed by a promotional tour in 2019. As a result, it was likely that Alabama Shakes wouldn’t be working on a new album for at least a couple of years, particularly due to the fact that Howard wanted to thoroughly explore the opportunities yielded by continuing the journey without any sense of creative restrictions.
Discussing the choice to go solo with The Independent, Howard said she “just wanted to expand creatively without anyone else’s input” despite it being “daunting”. However, the one thing that enabled her to pursue a solo journey without too much trepidation was asking herself the question: “What if I just erased the borders I work within in the Shakes? What if anything goes?”
The transition was monumental. Alabama Shakes were fundamental in the interweaving of soulful fabric into the less focused rock landscape, but Jaime explored Howard’s mysticism on new levels, incorporating various delectable streams of jazz, funk, rock, and soul tapestries. 2024’s What Now expanded on the authentic nature of Howard’s narrative creativity that permeated Jaime but with more reckless abandon, showcasing her relentless ambition and her consistent ability to deliver.
In between Jaime and What Now, however, a case brewed against Alabama Shakes’ drummer Johnson after he pledged guilty to domestic abuse, a crime which resulted in a one-year suspended prison sentence and 24 months of probation. The following year, he was arrested on suspicion of child abuse but was released on bail. The charges have since been dismissed.
An Alabama Shakes return might have been more plausible after Howard’s first album, but knowing that her success and popularity continue to soar without the band’s glass ceiling, along with the accompanying allegations surrounding their drummer, it’s unlikely that new music will ever emerge from their collaborative efforts ever again.
Still, the music and lyrics that so many continue to love and appreciate within the sonic walls of Alabama Shakes live on in Howard’s music, only in this case, it thrives with even more innovation and exploration of personal experience than she could have ever created within the band. In her own words: “I can’t create from a place of absolute, abject terror. So, I’m writing songs like ‘Another Day’ for myself, to keep my head up, so I can fight on.”
