Sound of Vinyl

"Brittany Howard, frontwoman with the band Alabama Shakes, releases her debut solo album, Jaime. Named after her sister, who passed away when both were teenagers, Brittany says, “The title is in memoriam, and she definitely did shape me as a human being. But, the record is not about her. It’s about me. I’m pretty candid about myself and who I am and what I believe. Which is why I needed to do it on my own.” Brittany's band includes Alabama Shakes bassist Zac Cockrell, jazz keyboardist Robert Glasper and Grammy-nominated drummer Nate Smith. They worked on material she then brought into engineer Shawn Everett’s Los Angeles studio. The result was her first solo album. The inspiration came from a reflective drive from Nashville to California. “I turned 30 and I was like, ‘What do I want the rest of my life to look like?' Do I want to play the same songs until I’m 50 and then retire, or do I do something that’s scarier for me? Do I want people to understand me and know me, do I want to tell them my story? I’m very private, but my favorite work is when people are being honest and really doing themselves.”"