Alabama Shakes released a new record for the first time in 11 years on Friday, and to Brittany Howard, it contains one clear takeaway. “I want people to be able to know that they can rely on each other,” the band’s singer says.
Howard and her bandmates, Zac Cockrell and Heath Fogg, last traveled this road together in 2015, when the sophomore effort from Alabama Shakes, Sound & Color, debuted at Number One on the Billboard 200 and landed three Grammy awards. They toured for two years in the record’s wake before going on hiatus in 2018, when Howard embarked on a solo career. Fogg did the same.
During their time apart, the world in which the soulful Southern rock outfit from Athens, Alabama, rose first to prominence and then to stardom, was upended in just about every way that mattered — socially, politically, and musically. I Must Be Dreaming, their new album, finds Alabama Shakes not only reckoning with all that but, at times, finding beauty in the chaos.
“The world has been pretty strange,” Howard tells Rolling Stone. “It’s always been a weird place, Earth, but I feel like it’s gotten super weird and sped up. It’s like all these impossible things that you always thought were myth or rumor — I feel like everything got turned upside-down, especially since Covid.”
That feeling of being untethered partially inspired the LP’s title.
“There’s that side of it: ‘I must be dreaming.’ But there’s the other side of that title, which is, there’s still beautiful, joyous things to be found, despite everything that we’re consuming,” Howard says. “As scary as it seems, there’s both sides of that rock.”
The 11-track LP should be a welcome comfort to longtime Shakes fans. The touches of blues, soul, folk, and Americana that shaped the group’s sound are still there. If, on the whole, the album sounds like the soundtrack to a reunion, it’s with good reason: This iteration of Alabama Shakes came about completely by happenstance, and the members are rolling with it.
In late 2024, Howard was asked to play a fundraiser for the Tuscaloosa-based Druid City Brewing Company. She and the brewery’s owner are friends, and she has a soft spot for Tuscaloosa — recalling it as a place she could always find original music and one of the early hotbeds for Alabama Shakes. In the wake of the pandemic, the brewery was struggling, and Howard wanted to help. She agreed to play a benefit that December at the Bama Theater in town.
“And then I had a thought: I should call the guys,” she says. “They also love him. We were gonna do, like, a little secret appearance. Well, we had to get together and rehearse these old songs we hadn’t played in forever, and it was pretty fun! It was fun being together again, listening to music, and listening to each other’s music. It just turned into, ‘We should play some more shows. You should listen to more demos that I have. We should record.’ It turned into an album.”
Barely a month later, Alabama Shakes announced they were working on new music. Howard envisioned it as an EP, but they left their first studio session with seven songs. “We were so close to an album, and we may as well just keep working on it,” she says.
The tie that binds I Must Be Dreaming is social activism. It’s not an album rooted in politics, but time and again, its songs return to the notion that a better world is possible for everyone. “American Dream” comes across as a snapshot of a citizen wanting to put trust in government and feeling betrayed instead. “I Feel Hope Coming” is even more pointed, from its opening line of “It’s gonna take more than prayers to change this place.” From Howard’s perspective, it’s music that fits the moment.
“It’s about seeing people unified, coming together,” she says, “and saying things like, ‘Hey! I don’t want to be mass-surveilled. Let’s destroy Flock cameras!’ And if someone says it’s illegal, everyone will go, ‘Oh. You really want to be mad about that?’ Seeing people finally be outraged together, at all the revelations from people you’re supposed to trust and who you pay to take care of your countrymen — seeing those things come out, it’s both scary and celebratory.”
Last summer, Alabama Shakes went on tour for the first time since 2017, and have stayed at it. The band has opened for Zach Bryan, co-headlined with the Tedeschi Trucks Band, and even had Mavis Staples out as a support act.
At first, Howard says, she did not know what to expect. The touring climate over the past two years has been bumpy, even for high-profile artists. But once they got some gigs under them, she realized that Alabama Shakes fans had not just stuck by the band, they were joined by fresh faces. She was struck by young fans at shows singing, dancing, and “being goofy.” The more the crowds let loose, the more she let loose. It has left her feeling grateful.
“It’s just respect,” Howard says of the shows. “With Zach Bryan’s crowd, there’s a lot of different kinds of people, and there’s a lot of them. The other night, we opened for him, and there was like 40,000 people out there. It’s a little nerve-wracking, but then you do it, and it’s really cool. In a way, it felt like it did back in 2010, when we had no idea how this was gonna go. You just get out there and be yourself, and then you feel the audience start to come to your side and appreciate you.”
It’s left Howard feeling particularly proud.
“At the end of the day,” she says, “we’re all just out here trying to express ourselves. It’s cool that people relate to it and feel the same way. It’s very cool.”
Josh Crutchmer is a journalist and author whose upcoming book, Sonoran Sounds, is set for release in March 2027 via Back Lounge Publishing.
