Brittany Howard

Over the course of two albums released in the 2010s, Alabama Shakes proved to be no standard-issue Southern rock band. Still, even its eclectic palette of cinematic soul and psychedelic funk was not enough to contain the surging creative energies of its frontwoman, Brittany Howard. Born in Athens, AL, in 1988 and raised in the church, Howard began playing guitar as a teen before forming the Shakes in 2009 with guitarist Heath Fogg, bassist Zac Cockrell, and drummer Steve Johnson. Her skyscraping pipes were the undeniable focal point of the band, but even at the height of its Barack Obama-boosted success, Howard indulged her wild side with the raw garage-rock side project Thunderbitch. Her 2019 solo debut, Jaime, lent full witness to her expansive avant-soul vision on songs inspired by both the death of her sister and Howard’s experiences as a queer, mixed-race woman. The album’s restless rhythmic DNA made it natural fodder for a remix record, Jaime (Reimagined), featuring reinterpretations from the likes of Childish Gambino and Bon Iver. What do you do after that? You could put out a boundary-pushing album of soul funk titled What Now, as Howard did in 2024, and follow that by making your acting debut as the voice of the titular character in an animated film called Thelma The Unicorn.