The Best Advice Brittany Howard Ever Got
The Alabama Shakes powerhouse received some great advice from a very unlikely source.
In 2019 Brittany Howard made a pretty big move. She didn’t switch labels or management, she didn’t move house—these days she’s living happily with her wife and their five cats and dogs in Taos, New Mexico. Nope, last year the 31-year-old made one of the scariest moves an established artist can make: she struck out on her own.
For the past decade Brittany Howard has been synonymous with the Alabama Shakes, her striking, soulful vocals anchoring and uplifting the band’s effortless, rousing brand of blues rock. But as a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer, Howard’s talents are wide-ranging, and outside of the Grammy-winning quartet, she’s often sought to stretch her creative range with side projects Thunderbitch and Bermuda Triangle.
Released this past September, her album Jaime is a deeply personal collection where she mines everything from spirituality to the terror of romantic vulnerability to her memories growing up as a mixed race child in the South; meanwhile the title is an ode to her older sister, Jaime, who passed away at just 13 due to a rare form of eye cancer. Sonically Jaime is cohesive yet covers considerable ground—there’s wigged out psychedelia (“13th Century Metal”), Prince-ly funk (“History Repeats”), and luscious soul (“Stay High”). There’s even a trace of D’Angelo stitched into her aching vocal cadences; some André 3000 in her swagger. It’s no surprise that the Athens-born artist is up for yet another GRAMMY later this month.
Brittany settled into the hot seat for her Best Advice interview, cocktail in hand, and she was an absolute ray of sunshine on a brittle New York winter’s day. Cracking up the crew and talking candidly about her experiences in the industry and all the lessons she’s learned along the way, it turns out her best advice came from a surprising source… a psychic!
Watch Brittany’s episode of Best Advice, above, and check out all our previous installments with Lizzo, Elton John, Tierra Whack, Quincy Jones, Ciara, Rick Ross, Karen O, and many more right here.
-Spotify For Artists
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