Bonnaroo Band of the Day: Judah & The Lion

Bonnaroo Artist | Judah & The Lion
Bonnaroo History | Newbie
Stage & Time | TBA

As we’ve been doing for the past several years now, we’re making it our mission to help you get acquainted with as many bands as we can from Bonnaroo‘s impressive 2016 lineup. We’ll start from the bottom and work our way up, paying special attention to the smaller and lesser known acts on this year’s bill. Keep reading for your Bonnaroo Band of the Day…

LEARN

Judah Akers and his bandmates formed Judah & The Lion in Music City, but all four members hail from different places around the US. As a result, everyone involved brought their own uniqueness to the project that truly manifests itself in their medley of sounds. Hip hop influenced percussion, distortion rich banjo licks, furious mandolin strumming and buzzy bass have been seamlessly blended together to wonderful affect. Their 2014 release, Like Kids These Days, reached number two on Billboaders’ Heatseeker chart and number four on BB’s Folk chart, but that was just the beginning.

Fiercely independent, the band have earned everything they have the hard way, through relentless touring and epic live shows. They must be doing some things right, because their latest release, Folk Hop N’ Roll, was helmed by none other than Nashville’s resident super producer Dave Cobb (Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell, Chris Stapleton). It was recorded in a series of marathon sessions over two weeks, in an effort to capture the lightning of their live shows in a studio bottle. It just goes to show you, in this brave new music industry world, label money isn’t always the deciding factor. Catch Judah and his gang this summer at Bonnaroo, while they’re still slightly under the radar, because when people like Dave Cobb get involved, growing success seems nearly inevitable.

LISTEN | “Forever, Always”