Alabama Shakes

After an eight-year absence, Alabama Shakes are poised to make their return announcing a 2025 Tour across the U.S. The Athens, AL-raised band, comprised of vocalist/guitarist Brittany Howard, guitarist Heath Fogg, and bassist Zac Cockrell exploded onto the scene in 2012 with their debut album Boys & Girls, (ATO Records), which entered Billboard’s Independent Albums chart at No. 1. Boys & Girls earned the band multiple GRAMMY nominations and was hailed as one of the year’s best albums by numerous publications, including Rolling Stone, which also named lead single “Hold On” the #1 Best Song of 2012. Soon after its release, the bandmates found themselves thrust into the global spotlight, achieving such milestones as performing at the White House and on “Saturday Night Live.”

The band’s legacy continued to grow with the groundbreaking Sound & Color (ATO Records). Released 10 years ago, the album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, won GRAMMY Awards for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. The first single, “Don’t Wanna Fight,” took honors in the Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song categories. Sound & Color marked a profound evolution from Alabama Shakes’ debut album, as The New York Times Magazine observed, heralding the band’s “soul-stirring, shape-shifting new sound.” Both Sound & Color and Boys & Girls were certified Platinum by the RIAA.

The Shakes’ Cockrell, Fogg, & Howard have also reunited in the studio promising new music to fans who have been eagerly awaiting their return.

The Budos Band

After a two-decade run with the legendary Daptone Records, Frontier’s Edge is the first new music from the group on the new label, Diamond West Records — run by The Budos’ saxophonist Jared Tankel and guitarist Tom Brenneck.

The Budos Band’s departure from Daptone was on good terms; the split from their long-time home base was an organic result of the band’s evolution.

“It’s just a natural growth,” Brenneck says, admitting: “We’re going further away from the sound of Daptone and into territory they probably wanted to stay away from.”

As a result, Frontier’s Edge finds the group hungry, passionate and primed to charge into their next epoch newfound sense autonomy within the collective.

“We’re a powerhouse in the studio; we can produce ourselves,” Brenneck says proudly of a long process of self-containment. “I take the helm, but the band, they know what they want.”

As expected from The Budos Band, Frontier’s Edge resists analysis; it represents the band as they are: a contained explosion. You don’t pick apart Frontier’s Edge; you feel it all at once.

Whether this is your first rodeo with The Budos Band or you’ve been following them throughout their two-decade run, Frontier’s Edge contains their musical universe — Afrobeat, Ethiopian music, proto-metal, any number of other streams — in microcosm.

Dime the volume and behold The Budos.