Almost Something

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Alabama Shakes – “You Ain’t Alone” (live)

 

In terms of band discovery, it doesn’t get more exciting than this.  Halfway through “Hold On”, the first track on Alabama Shakes’ debut LP released a few months back, I had the band pegged as a solid southern rock outfit with a good grasp on funky grooves.  The song draws as much from garage rock as Delta blues with just enough pop sensibility to pull it all together.  Then came the second track, “I Found You”, where the listener is truly invited into the home of frontwoman Brittany Howard, one of the most soulful voices to enter the music scene in recent years.  She’s that good.  There is so much emotion that bleeds off her mic during the 60’s pop inspired track that it sets the “like” meter all the way to 10.  The band is certainly at their best when they dig into Otis Redding style R&B grooves highlighting Howard’s vocal brilliance, but it’s the duality between rock and soul the band creates that really makes me excited for Alabama Shakes.  They’ve rippled into the music scene in recent months and have set themselves up for a booming introduction to the indie music world in 2012.  Best of all, the videos out on the web show a band putting their all out on the stage while playing live.  I’m convinced this band is something special and will be sure to be among many SXSW’ers highlights come March.