Brittany Howard

So, don’t question my state of mind

I’m doing wonderful, just fine, thank you

Everything is everything, and everything is beautiful

See, all I do is keep it cool and don’t worry ‘bout what everyone else is doing

Once again it’s time for everyone’s favorite, a reverse Musical Tree! I’ll be talking about the lead singer for the group Alabama Shakes, Brittany Howard. Some of her musical influences may surprise you, so let’s shake the tree and get down to it!

Brittany Howard first burst on the scene with the band Alabama Shakes. Her incredible voice can go from whoops, howls, hollers to incredible soulful textures. She has often been compared to Janis Joplin and Aretha Franklin, but as we are about to find out, neither of those great singers influenced Brittany. 

Brittany Howard was born on October 2, 1988 in Athens, Alabama. To say that her childhood was hard would be an understatement. Born to a black father and a white mother, her family faced repeated acts of racism. One year, days after Christmas, their house burned down, the cause of which was never determined. A few years after that her father went out to his car one morning to go to work and found a severed goat’s head in the back seat.  Throughout all of this Brittany and her older sister, Jaime, found solace through music. It was Jaime who taught Brittany how to write her first song. 

Tragedy struck the Howard family again when Jaime was diagnosed with a rare form of retinal cancer and passed away from the disease at the tender age of 13. Brittany later suffered from the same form of cancer but survived with partial blindness in one eye. By the time Brittany turned 13 her parents had divorced and she had learned to play the guitar. She was taken by songs by Dionne Warwick and Elvis Presley. She listened to their music constantly, and was inspired to start writing her own songs. 

While she was in high school Brittany met future Alabama Shakes bass player Zac Cockrell, and he turned her on to 1970’s rock music. Brittany recalled that she would be “riding in the back of this Buick and be like ‘What’s this? This is really cool”. Her friends told her it was Pink Floyd, and Brittany recalled that “Whoa, it blew my mind. I started getting into all of the classic rock stuff, like Cream and Yes”. After working for the United States Post Office after she graduated high school, Brittany soon became a full-time musician as the lead singer of Alabama Shakes. Her days of sorting mail were over!

In 2012 Alabama Shakes released their first album, the critically acclaimed ‘Boys and Girls’. Howard’s unique and powerful voice is evident throughout the album, which would go on to receive multiple Grammy nominations. Take a listen to the retro rock sound of Hang Loose from their debut album.

Alabama Shakes would release another critically acclaimed album in 2015. Not content to stay with the retro-rockabilly sound of their debut LP, their next effort, dubbed ‘Sound and Color, was a mix of blues, funk, and psychedelia.  ‘Sound and Color’ debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart and also was well received by critics. Take a listen to the song ‘Dunes’ from their second album.

The band was now being booked on numerous TV shows and musical festivals, with a personal highlight for Brittany being invited by Sir Paul McCartney to join him onstage at Lollapalooza in 2015 to perform the Beatles song ‘Get Back!’ Later that year Brittany Howard was named the recipient of Billboard’s Woman in Music Powerhouse Award.

Brittany has cited numerous artists that have influenced her, with a heavy influence on 1970’s rock artists. We’ve already mentioned the likes of Pink Floyd and Yes, but she also lists Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Tina Turner, and Freddie Mercury as major influences. Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who was featured in an earlier Musical Tree and is credited as having invented rock and roll guitar riffs, is also a major influence on Brittany. Prince has also been a big influence, along with soul artists like Curtis Mayfield and Mavis Staples. But the artist that Brittany claims has had the biggest influence on her is the soul singer Nina Simone.

Nina Simone is truly a remarkable artist whose musical and civil rights contribution are still being felt today. Suffice it to say that John Lennon stated that her version of the song ‘I Put a Spell On You’ was a direct influence on the Beatles song ‘Michelle’

When you listen to Brittany Howard sing you can really hear Nina Simone’s influence – the soulful singing, rising up to a growl, then a crescendo, then back down to something that raises the hair on your skin. Truly a remarkable range. 

2019 saw Brittany Howard release her first solo album, titled ‘Jaime’ after her late sister. Brittany was experiencing writers block and decided to step away from Alabama Shakes. She wrote a memoir of her life up until she joined Alabama Shakes, and all of the songs for ‘Jaime’ sprung from her memoir. Brittany wrote all of the songs on the album, and the songs range from deeply personal to political, from tender to very direct.

On the song ‘Goat Head’ from this first solo album, Brittany sings:

Cause mama is white 

And daddy is black

When I first got made 

Guess I made these folks mad

Perhaps the best song on the album is the soulful song ‘Stay High’. Dubbed the unofficial love song of the pandemic, it’s a sweet love song about being in the moment with your lover. It’s a beautiful song that highlights her sweet and soulful voice.

In 2020 Brittany Howard stepped out and performed covers of two of her favorite artists. She appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to perform Nina Simone’s song ‘Revolution’, a song that Simone loosely based on the The Beatles song of the same name. She also released a version of the Funkadelics song ‘You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks’ 

It seems very fitting to share this on Juneteenth. Currently Brittany and her wife live in Taos, New Mexico, away from the hustle and bustle of New York or LA and where a night out means heading to the local karaoke bar where Brittany belts out Queen and Journey songs. Oh, to be a fly on the wall when that happens! Yes, it appears that Brittany Howard is doing wonderful, just fine. Thank you.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s Musical Tree! Feel free to leave suggestions for future articles in the comments. Don’t forget to subscribe to be notified via email when there is a new post. 

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