Alabama Shakes Lay Down 'Boys and Girls' in Rare Studio Footage

Alabama Shakes Lay Down 'Boys and Girls' in Rare Studio FootageBand records their hit debut in previously unseen clip $(document).ready(function() { $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .email-content').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').hide(); } ); $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .print-page').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').hide(); } ); }); OO.ready(function() { OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer', 'BmdHB5OTp50G5hf6k1ehkGb6FV0BE-dV', {'autoplay': true }); });By

It's been over a year since the down-home, dirty roots-rockers Alabama Shakes recorded their debut LP Boys and Girls, and plenty's changed since then. The group scored a handful of Grammy nods, they played Saturday Night Live and their track "Hold On" topped Rolling Stone's countdown of 2012's best songs. Now you can take a look back in time with this exclusive, never-before-seen footage of the band recording the album in November and December of 2011 at the Bomb Shelter in Nashville, Tennessee. The intimate clip finds the band scrawling down lyrics and working through their soon-to-be-breakthough cuts "Boys and Girls" and "I Ain't the Same."

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Alabama Shakes Lay Down 'Boys and Girls' in Rare Studio Footage

Alabama Shakes Lay Down 'Boys and Girls' in Rare Studio FootageBand records their hit debut in previously unseen clip $(document).ready(function() { $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .email-content').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').hide(); } ); $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .print-page').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').hide(); } ); }); OO.ready(function() { OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer', 'BmdHB5OTp50G5hf6k1ehkGb6FV0BE-dV', {'autoplay': true }); });By

It's been over a year since the down-home, dirty roots-rockers Alabama Shakes recorded their debut LP Boys and Girls, and plenty's changed since then. The group scored a handful of Grammy nods, they played Saturday Night Live and their track "Hold On" topped Rolling Stone's countdown of 2012's best songs. Now you can take a look back in time with this exclusive, never-before-seen footage of the band recording the album in November and December of 2011 at the Bomb Shelter in Nashville, Tennessee. The intimate clip finds the band scrawling down lyrics and working through their soon-to-be-breakthough cuts "Boys and Girls" and "I Ain't the Same."

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Alabama Shakes Lay Down 'Boys and Girls' in Rare Studio Footage

Alabama Shakes Lay Down 'Boys and Girls' in Rare Studio FootageBand records their hit debut in previously unseen clip $(document).ready(function() { $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .email-content').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').hide(); } ); $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .print-page').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').hide(); } ); }); OO.ready(function() { OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer', 'BmdHB5OTp50G5hf6k1ehkGb6FV0BE-dV', {'autoplay': true }); });By

It's been over a year since the down-home, dirty roots-rockers Alabama Shakes recorded their debut LP Boys and Girls, and plenty's changed since then. The group scored a handful of Grammy nods, they played Saturday Night Live and their track "Hold On" topped Rolling Stone's countdown of 2012's best songs. Now you can take a look back in time with this exclusive, never-before-seen footage of the band recording the album in November and December of 2011 at the Bomb Shelter in Nashville, Tennessee. The intimate clip finds the band scrawling down lyrics and working through their soon-to-be-breakthough cuts "Boys and Girls" and "I Ain't the Same."

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Alabama Shakes Lay Down 'Boys and Girls' in Rare Studio Footage

Alabama Shakes Lay Down 'Boys and Girls' in Rare Studio FootageBand records their hit debut in previously unseen clip $(document).ready(function() { $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .email-content').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').hide(); } ); $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .print-page').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').hide(); } ); }); OO.ready(function() { OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer', 'BmdHB5OTp50G5hf6k1ehkGb6FV0BE-dV', {'autoplay': true }); });By

It's been over a year since the down-home, dirty roots-rockers Alabama Shakes recorded their debut LP Boys and Girls, and plenty's changed since then. The group scored a handful of Grammy nods, they played Saturday Night Live and their track "Hold On" topped Rolling Stone's countdown of 2012's best songs. Now you can take a look back in time with this exclusive, never-before-seen footage of the band recording the album in November and December of 2011 at the Bomb Shelter in Nashville, Tennessee. The intimate clip finds the band scrawling down lyrics and working through their soon-to-be-breakthough cuts "Boys and Girls" and "I Ain't the Same."

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Alabama Shakes' Brittany Howard Turned Down 'X Factor'

Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes performs at The Coronet in London.Matt Kent/Redferns via Getty Images

Alabama Shakes frontwoman Brittany Howard was once invited to join the cast of The X-Factor, the singer revealed in an interview with The Independent.

"They heard of us through the internet and started sending me emails which kept going into my spam folder," Howard explained. "One day [the talent searcher] called me to ask and I told her, 'No, I'm not going to do that.' She was like, 'Are you sure about that?' and I said, 'Yeah, I'm sure. I have something going on now that I believe in and want to stick to.' She was shocked."

Howard said she had never considered auditioning for the show, even in the days before the band got a record deal and its various members were working day jobs for the postal service, nuclear power plants, house painters and vets. 

"It's not fair," she said. "You go out there, people gawk at you, they love you or hate you and it doesn't mean anything to them but it means the world to you. So it's kind of a fucked-up show. I would never do it."

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Alabama Shakes' Brittany Howard Turned Down 'X Factor'

Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes performs at The Coronet in London.Matt Kent/Redferns via Getty Images

Alabama Shakes frontwoman Brittany Howard was once invited to join the cast of The X-Factor, the singer revealed in an interview with The Independent.

"They heard of us through the internet and started sending me emails which kept going into my spam folder," Howard explained. "One day [the talent searcher] called me to ask and I told her, 'No, I'm not going to do that.' She was like, 'Are you sure about that?' and I said, 'Yeah, I'm sure. I have something going on now that I believe in and want to stick to.' She was shocked."

Howard said she had never considered auditioning for the show, even in the days before the band got a record deal and its various members were working day jobs for the postal service, nuclear power plants, house painters and vets. 

"It's not fair," she said. "You go out there, people gawk at you, they love you or hate you and it doesn't mean anything to them but it means the world to you. So it's kind of a fucked-up show. I would never do it."

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Alabama Shakes Roll Into Texas With Soulful Set

"Hello, Austin, Texas. I'm gonna murder you," huffed Alabama Shakes' singer-guitarist Brittany Howard, stomping her feet as the band launched into "Hang Loose," a rollicking tune about living carefree. Billed as one of this year's must-see acts at SXSW, the group delivered on their hype during NPR's showcase at Stubb's Wednesday night, tearing through all but two tracks from their upcoming debut LP, Boys & Girls.

Alabama Shakes' music is drenched in gospel and Southern rock influences, but their real calling card is Howard, a wildly soulful vocalist who has already earned comparisons to Janis Joplin. Her bandmates – bassist Zac Cockrell, guitarist Heath Fogg,  drummer Steve Johnson and keyboardist Ben Tanner – know better than to distract from a good thing. They took a backseat and let Howard's charisma bleed through songs like "I Ain't The Same" and "Always Alright," a pass-the-alcohol adrenaline-starter with genuine swagger.

At one point, Howard paused to explain Boys & Girls' title track, recounting how she was ridiculed growing up for having a boy as her best friend. "Oh, why can't we be best friends anymore?" she sang in earnest. After the multiple SXSW shows that Alabama Shakes have lined up this week – some 2,000 people piled into Stubb's alone – Howard shouldn't have any more trouble keeping friends.

Setlist:

"Hang Loose"
"I Ain't the Same"
"Hold On"
"I Found You"
"Always Alright"
"Boys & Girls"
"Be Mine"
"Rise to the Sun"
"You Ain't Alone"
"Heavy Chevy"
"On Your Way"
"Heat Lightning"

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Alabama Shakes Roll Into Texas With Soulful Set

"Hello, Austin, Texas. I'm gonna murder you," huffed Alabama Shakes' singer-guitarist Brittany Howard, stomping her feet as the band launched into "Hang Loose," a rollicking tune about living carefree. Billed as one of this year's must-see acts at SXSW, the group delivered on their hype during NPR's showcase at Stubb's Wednesday night, tearing through all but two tracks from their upcoming debut LP, Boys & Girls.

Alabama Shakes' music is drenched in gospel and Southern rock influences, but their real calling card is Howard, a wildly soulful vocalist who has already earned comparisons to Janis Joplin. Her bandmates – bassist Zac Cockrell, guitarist Heath Fogg,  drummer Steve Johnson and keyboardist Ben Tanner – know better than to distract from a good thing. They took a backseat and let Howard's charisma bleed through songs like "I Ain't The Same" and "Always Alright," a pass-the-alcohol adrenaline-starter with genuine swagger.

At one point, Howard paused to explain Boys & Girls' title track, recounting how she was ridiculed growing up for having a boy as her best friend. "Oh, why can't we be best friends anymore?" she sang in earnest. After the multiple SXSW shows that Alabama Shakes have lined up this week – some 2,000 people piled into Stubb's alone – Howard shouldn't have any more trouble keeping friends.

Setlist:

"Hang Loose"
"I Ain't the Same"
"Hold On"
"I Found You"
"Always Alright"
"Boys & Girls"
"Be Mine"
"Rise to the Sun"
"You Ain't Alone"
"Heavy Chevy"
"On Your Way"
"Heat Lightning"

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Muscle Shoals Revival: Alabama Shakes Take Off

Heath Fogg, Zac Cockrell, Brittany Howard and Steve Johnson of Alabama Shakes photographed in Athens, Alabama.

In the living room of the small white house that Alabama Shakes guitarist Heath Fogg and bassist Zac Cockrell call home in Madison, Alabama, singer Brittany Howard sits picking at an acoustic guitar. Morning thunderstorms have knocked out the power all along this unglamorous stretch of U.S. 72. If you follow the highway west, it runs through Athens – the small town where Howard, Fogg, Cockrell and drummer Steve Johnson grew up – and then on to Muscle Shoals, where Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin and Lynyrd Skynyrd cut classic albums.

On their four-song debut EP, Alabama Shakes tap deep into that well of Southern rock and soul with a passion that has attracted high-profile admirers including Adele, David Byrne and Booker T. Jones. But for Howard, the 50 miles from Athens to the Shoals took a long time to travel. "My first band, when I was 13, played punk rock," says the singer, now 23, whose friends were more into Usher and TLC. "I was always pegged as the weird kid."

She started writing songs at age four with her older sister, who died of a brain tumor in 1998. "After she passed away, I didn't have anybody to do that with," Howard says. "But I found her guitar, started playing and never really stopped."

Howard met Cockrell after spying him in the hallway of their high school wearing an At the Drive-In T-shirt. The pair met Johnson through the local punk scene ("I had a punk band, he had a punk band," says Howard, "and that was the circuit") and recruited Fogg from a classic-rock cover act.

Onstage, blasting through tunes like the euphoric, gospel-tinged "I Found You," the slow-burning "You Ain't Alone" and the sunny Motown groove "Hold On," Howard belts like a garage-rock Janis Joplin over the band's sturdy, high-energy choogling. New fans are converted at every gig – including the Drive-By Truckers' Patterson Hood, who was so impressed after catching a raw in-store set last summer that he invited the group to open for a run of Truckers shows.

"They were incredible – it was almost Springsteen-ian," says Hood. "If they don't fuck up and take a wrong turn, I can't imagine how good they could be."

This story is from the February 2nd, 2012 issue of Rolling Stone.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Muscle Shoals Revival: Alabama Shakes Take Off

Heath Fogg, Zac Cockrell, Brittany Howard and Steve Johnson of Alabama Shakes photographed in Athens, Alabama.

In the living room of the small white house that Alabama Shakes guitarist Heath Fogg and bassist Zac Cockrell call home in Madison, Alabama, singer Brittany Howard sits picking at an acoustic guitar. Morning thunderstorms have knocked out the power all along this unglamorous stretch of U.S. 72. If you follow the highway west, it runs through Athens – the small town where Howard, Fogg, Cockrell and drummer Steve Johnson grew up – and then on to Muscle Shoals, where Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin and Lynyrd Skynyrd cut classic albums.

On their four-song debut EP, Alabama Shakes tap deep into that well of Southern rock and soul with a passion that has attracted high-profile admirers including Adele, David Byrne and Booker T. Jones. But for Howard, the 50 miles from Athens to the Shoals took a long time to travel. "My first band, when I was 13, played punk rock," says the singer, now 23, whose friends were more into Usher and TLC. "I was always pegged as the weird kid."

She started writing songs at age four with her older sister, who died of a brain tumor in 1998. "After she passed away, I didn't have anybody to do that with," Howard says. "But I found her guitar, started playing and never really stopped."

Howard met Cockrell after spying him in the hallway of their high school wearing an At the Drive-In T-shirt. The pair met Johnson through the local punk scene ("I had a punk band, he had a punk band," says Howard, "and that was the circuit") and recruited Fogg from a classic-rock cover act.

Onstage, blasting through tunes like the euphoric, gospel-tinged "I Found You," the slow-burning "You Ain't Alone" and the sunny Motown groove "Hold On," Howard belts like a garage-rock Janis Joplin over the band's sturdy, high-energy choogling. New fans are converted at every gig – including the Drive-By Truckers' Patterson Hood, who was so impressed after catching a raw in-store set last summer that he invited the group to open for a run of Truckers shows.

"They were incredible – it was almost Springsteen-ian," says Hood. "If they don't fuck up and take a wrong turn, I can't imagine how good they could be."

This story is from the February 2nd, 2012 issue of Rolling Stone.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Amazon Music and MP3 Center

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