Brittany Howard on Alabama Shakes’ Reunion, I Must Be Dreaming, and Finding Hope in a Fractured World: Podcast

Listen via: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Podcasts | More Platforms After a decade away, Alabama Shakes are suddenly a living, breathing band again. Brittany Howard spoke with Kyle Meredith about the unlikely chain of events that brought her back together with Zac Cockrell and Heath Fogg, eventually leading to the band’s third album, I Must Be Dreaming. What began as a surprise appearance at a fundraiser grew into rehearsals, three prospective songs, then seven, and finally, a full album steeped in psychedelic soul while wrestling with fear, responsibility, and the possibility of hope. Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts. The reunion started with an old friend in Tuscaloosa whose brewery had been hit hard by COVID. Howard agreed to perform at his fundraiser, then realized the man had been equally important to her Alabama Shakes bandmates during their lean early days. She invited Cockrell and Fogg and secretly brought them onstage for “Hang Loose” and “Hold On.” “It kind of took me back to a place where every music was exciting, the world was exciting,” Howard remembers. “It’s like this nostalgia for ourselves of becoming not just friends and fellow musicians, but als...