Bonnaroo 2024 Artist Spotlight: Brittany Howard

Like we’ve been doing for many years now, we’re making it our mission to help you get acquainted with many of our favorite acts from Bonnaroo‘s 2024 lineup. After roaring back to life in 2022, after two years off due to Covid and weather, and feeling fully like its old self again with a great fest last summer, this year marks Bonnaroo’s 21st installment (and 23rd anniversary), boasting not only another great and varied lineup, but also a continuation of some of the big changes and improvements rolled out over the last couple of years, with more flexibility in ticketing and camping, a reimagined “Outeroo” campground area, new activations, and further new ways to Roo. Back once again in its usual June 13-16 timeframe, we’re counting down the days until another great weekend on the farm.

As we dig through the entire schedule, we’ll highlight a spread of performers spanning across genres and stages, big and small, new and old, to bring you some of the most interesting, lesser-known, and most highly-recommended among this year’s crop of artists. And as our time at ‘Roo approaches, we’ll also be bringing you some special features and full list-style daily lineup guides, to help you plan your weekend ahead of the fest. While these previews won’t span every artist, and might omit some more obvious must-see acts, we hope they’ll serve as a way to help you navigate Bonnaroo’s gargantuan lineup, and to make the most of your busy weekend at the fest!

Grab your tickets right here if you haven’t already, and read on for our Bonnaroo Artist Spotlight!

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Though she shot to fame in the early 2010s with her Grammy-winning, lauded southern and blues rock group Alabama Shakes, and headed up some other quite cool if less-known side projects not long after, for the last five years Alabama born, Nashville based singer-songwriter and vocal powerhouse Brittany Howard has experienced an impressive second chapter as solo artist, crafting two fantastic, heartfelt, and critically-acclaimed LPs, and shoring up her legacy as one of our generation’s most significant and impactful blues, rock, and soul artists. Hailing originally from Athens, Alabama, where as teen she met bassist Zac Cockrell and formed the band that would become Alabama Shakes, Brittany fell in love with classic rock, blues, soul, hard rock, and psychedelia at a young age, a vibe which would greatly influence the Shakes’ sound and her own unparalleled vocal style. The band’s 2012 debut Boys & Girls shot them into the mainstream, propelled by breakout single “Hold On,” and 2015 follow-up Sound & Color earned Grammys and cemented their legacy, as the group played at major fests and on late night shows, and Brittany saw her own star power rise, guesting at Lollapalooza with Paul McCartney, and jamming on TV with Stephen Colbert. During those years, Howard also pursued a scrappy, punk-leaning side project Thunderbitch, who released one album in 2015, and played just a handful of shows, two of which we had the pleasure of catching, and also took part in short-lived folk trio Bermuda Triangle, with Becca Mancari and Jesse Lafser (Howard’s now ex-wife), who played just a handful of shows in 2017 and 2018. It was 2019 solo debut Jaime, following Alabama Shakes’ indefinite hiatus, however, that really kicked off a new chapter of singular artistic expression for the artist, adopting a more experimental, soulful, synthy, funky, and psychedelic sound, and tackling some of her most personal and deeply affecting subject matter to date, after a bout of writer’s block, dedicating the album to her sister Jaime, who died in childhood. Met with immediate and unanimous praise, the album led to solo tours, high-profile promotional appearances, and a Grammy win for Best Rock Song for single “Stay High.” The cycle would be cut somewhat short though, when the pandemic forced Howard, like all artists, to take a pause. Taking her time to craft sophomore effort What Now, which dropped back in February, the last few years have marked immense periods of change, hardship, and self-reflection, not only due to the pandemic and sociopolitical uncertainty, but in the singer’s own life, going through a divorce, moving back to Nashville after some time spent in New Mexico, and navigating where, artistically, she should go next. The result if a phenomenal, uninhibited, psych-drenched, deeply reflective and confessional work, produced by Howard and Shawn Everett and recorded in Nashville, marking her most open and ambitious songs to date, and a level of biting catharsis few songwriters can so effectively achieve. Most recently, she provided her voice and likeness to the lead role of Netflix animated film Thelma the Unicorn, her acting debut, and returns to Bonnaroo for the third time (after two previous appearances with Alabama Shakes), but first as a solo artist, sure to be one of the weekend’s most powerful and resonant sets.

WATCH | “What Now” (Official Video)