Fast ride on a long road: Brittany Howard and Alabama Shakes play the Mann
When the world is introduced to a talent as bold as Brittany Howard, things happen fast. That was the case when the Alabama Shakes first came to music fans' attention. The Athens, Ala., rock and soul band, fronted by the powerhouse vocalist, headline the Mann Center for the Performing Arts tonight behind its stellar new album, Sound & Color.
When the world is introduced to a talent as bold as Brittany Howard, things happen fast.
That was the case when the Alabama Shakes first came to music fans' attention. The Athens, Ala., rock and soul band, fronted by the powerhouse vocalist, headline the Mann Center for the Performing Arts Thursday night behind its stellar new album, Sound & Color.
After being spotted and talked up in 2011 by Patterson Hood of roots-rock band Drive-By Truckers - who are opening up for the Shakes at the Mann - the Shakes became an instant blog buzz act and the first band to be featured on Austin City Limits before their debut album, Boys & Girls, was even released.
"It was definitely happening quickly," Howard recalls, talking from her front porch in Athens, which is, the hard-touring musician reports, "exactly where I want to be. Every time I'm home it's like a vacation.
"But I've been playing in bands since I was 11," the singer and guitarist, now 26, goes on. "I guess our goals were always small goals. It started off my goal was just to be in a band. Then it was to have a drummer that would show up.
"After Patterson heard us, it all really happened after that. We met our management and we worked really hard. So from someone else's eyes it might seem like we really rocketed. But it was definitely a long road to get there."
After that fast ride to success, the Shakes weren't worried about following up in a hurry. Instead, they took their time in shaping the impressively varied Sound & Color, whose 12 songs were all written by Howard, with an assist on three by producer Blake Mills.
"We definitely wanted to slow down," says Howard, who splits her time between Athens, the northern Alabama town where she used to work as a U.S. Postal Service letter carrier, and Nashville, 100 miles to the north.
"So we could write. So we could think. It's easy to come away with your head spinning after seeing the entire world for the first time. It was a lot for some people from Athens, Alabama, to take in. We wanted to see our family, and cut our grass. Be kind of normal for a little bit."
When time came to make Sound & Color, "we took our time to make something we were proud of." The album topped the Billboard album chart this spring and showcases Howard's staggering vocal range on songs like "Don't Wanna Fight," a plea for peace. "A lot of it had to do with just having all this time to think, and to say, 'What do I want from this? Is it money and fame that I want, or ... to enjoy what I'm doing?' "
Sound & Color's rich textures are in part due to the influence of Italian spaghetti-Western film composer Ennio Morricone, of whom Howard is a major fan, along with American soul and jazz composer and arranger David Axelrod.
"I was listening to a lot of Curtis Mayfield, the string arrangements on his records, and thinking a lot about dynamics," Howard says. "Listening to Gil Scott-Heron and Donny Hathaway. Just listening really closely to how important space is and how composers use it to their advantage. I got a real education that way."
Last week, Howard was on the premiere of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, singing Sly Stone's "Everyday People" with house band Jon Baptiste & Stay Human and a group of other great performers.
"It was actually really fun," she says. "It was really cool to to watch [Colbert ]write the show, and see how involved he is in everything. That's a hardworking man. Every second he wasn't on camera, he had all the writers around his desk, and he had an opinion about everything. It's very much his show."
It was also a kick to sing with Mavis Staples, because "Oh, man, I love the Staple Singers. I love Pop Staples' guitar playing, too. He's one of my favorite guitar players."
Along with who else? Howard names Marc Ribot, the guitarist on Tom Waits' 1985 album Rain Dogs. "I really like the way he plays. Memphis Minnie and Sister Rosetta Tharpe and, of course, Chuck Berry. And Angus Young and Malcolm Young" of AC/DC.
"I love Jimi Hendrix obviously, and Jimmy Page and Prince. And also Elvis Presley is a really great guitar player. I don't think he ever took lessons; he was piecing it together himself. But he has great rhythm. And rhythm, to me, you can use it to your advantage if you're not all over the fretboard."
Earlier this month, an album by Thunderbitch, a band in which Howard sings and plays guitar, was surprise-released. It also includes members of the Nashville bands Fly Golden Eagle and Clear Plastic Masks.
It's a side project but hardly a throwaway, with rough-cut rock and roll songs that unleash Howard's vocal attack on songs with titles like "Leather Jacket," "Wild Child," and "My Baby Is My Guitar."
Howard will not, however, discuss the album involving her superheroine alias.
"The thing about Thunderbitch is, I can only talk about Thunderbitch if I'm Thunderbitch," she said. "And currently I'm not Thunderbitch. I'm just Brittany Howard of the Alabama Shakes. Brittany Howard is not Thunderbitch and Thunderbitch is not Brittany Howard. Thunderbitch is Thunderbitch."
Don't expect to hear any Thunderbitch songs at the Shakes show at the Mann on Thursday, either. The bands are two separate entities, and although it arrived without warning, she says, "It's not really a secret. The album came out on a full moon. It dropped. No setup. And now people are doing their thing, by word of mouth. Thunderbitch couldn't be happier."
MUSIC
Alabama Shakes with the Drive-By Truckers
7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Mann Center, 5201 Parkside Ave.
Tickets: $30-$49.50. Information: 215-546-7900 or www.manncenter.org
215-854-5628
@delucadan