BIRMINGHAM, Ala (WIAT) — For those who have been holding on for an Alabama Shakes reunion since the band went on hiatus nearly a decade ago, Wednesday night was a special night.
On Wednesday, the Grammy Award-winning band from Athens reunited during the Tuscaloosa Get Up 3 benefit concert at the Bama Theatre. The concert, which was hosted by Druid City Brewing Company, featured acts like Mike Cooley of Drive-By Truckers and Lee Bains of Lee Bains III and the Glory Fires.
Originally, singer Brittany Howard was scheduled to do a solo show for the concert, but surprised the crowd by having a full reunion of the band, who had not played together publicly since the end of their 2017 tour promoting their sophomore album, "Sound & Color." During the 30-minute set, the band played some of its biggest songs, such as "Hold On" and "Hang Loose."
The performance was captured by many on social media, including Tuscaloosa Patch editor Ryan Phillips and Mark Hughes Cobb of The Tuscaloosa News.
Months before the surprise show, Howard had hinted at the possibility of a reunion someday.
"As far as what happens in the future, I just follow the curiosity," Howard told Entertainment Weekly back in May while promoting the Netflix film, "Thelma the Unicorn." "I feel like if there's a beat there and the creativity's calling me there, then that's something that we'll have a conversation about, me and the guys. I wouldn't say the door's completely closed."
Alabama Shakes, featuring Howard, bassist Zac Cockrell, guitarist Heath Fogg and drummer Steve Johnson, first formed in 2009 in Athens, playing across Alabama and the southeast before releasing their debut album, "Boys & Girls," in 2012. The album would garner the band three Grammy nominations, including Best New Artist, and was featured in the 2012 film "Silver Linings Playbook."
The band would win their first Grammy in 2016 with the release of "Sound & Color," winning Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song for "Don't Wanna Fight." "Sound & Color" also won the Grammy for Best Alternative Album.
The band's last show was at the Osheaga Music and Arts Festival in Montreal on August 6, 2017. The following year, they announced that they were going on hiatus.
In an interview with the BBC in 2019, Howard said the exhaustion from the tour and a desire to branch out on her own contributed to her decision to put the band on hold.
"I thought, 'What do I want for the rest of my career?' And I said, 'Well, it'd be cool if I did something on my own'," Howard said. "I just felt unwilling to give things away any more."
Howard said it was difficult telling the band her plans, but that everyone involved understood that this would be a new chapter for them.
"We sat in a circle and we just talked about it. It was bittersweet, for sure, because we've grown up together, we've changed our lives together - but I think everyone walked away from the room knowing that it wasn't necessarily so much an ending as it was like, 'OK, here's a new beginning'," she said.
With Alabama Shakes in the rearview mirror, Howard dove head first into her solo career, releasing her debut solo album "Jaime" in 2019, which was nominated for seven Grammys, winning for Best Rock Song for "Stay High." In February, she released her follow-up record, "What Now."
In May, Howard voiced the title character in the Netflix film "Thelma the Unicorn."
Since hitting pause on the band, Alabama Shakes bassist Zac Cockrell has backed Howard in her solo band the last few years while Fogg released an album in 2019 as the project Sun on Shade. In 2021, drummer Johnson was arrested and charged with child abuse. The charges were later dropped.
There is no news on whether the reunion would mark the start of future work for the band or if this was a one-off performance.