Alabama Shakes Return With Bluesy Soho Sessions Set

Alabama Shakes played an intimate, bluesy rock set at the Soho Sessions in New York on Tuesday night, drawing heavily on their first album in more than a decade, I Must Be Dreaming, alongside classics including "Don't Wanna Fight."

Rolling Stone is exclusively premiering the band's performance of their 2015 hit "Gimme All Your Love," directed by Ehud Lazin.

The Grammy Chart-topping band packed the small room with selections spanning their catalog. The setlist included "Sound & Color," "Future People," and "Always Alright," among other songs. The appearance was hosted in support of the Grammy Museum.

Why did the band get back together?

A different benefit event brought Alabama Shakes back to the stage. In late 2024, frontwoman Brittany Howard agreed to play a benefit show in Tuscaloosa and called her former bandmates for the occasion.

"And then I had a thought: I should call the guys," Howard told Rolling Stone earlier this year.

The reunion quickly outgrew its original scale.

"We were gonna do, like, a little secret appearance," Howard said. "Well, we had to get together and rehearse these old songs we hadn't played in forever, and it was pretty fun! It was fun being together again, listening to music, and listening to each other's music. It just turned into, 'We should play some more shows. You should listen to more demos that I have. We should record.' It turned into an album."

That album became I Must Be Dreaming, the band's first release in over ten years. While creating it, the band says, they were thinking about the same kind of intimacy and proximity that comes with the small performance space they took over for the Soho Sessions.

What made the night special?

Greg Williamson, co-founder of The Soho Sessions, said the booking reflects the series' founding purpose.

"Having Alabama Shakes in this room is exactly why we created The Soho Sessions," Williamson said in a statement. "They're an incredible live band, and you don't often get the chance to experience artists at this level from just a few feet away. To do this in support of the GRAMMY Museum and music education made this a really special night."

The performance, captured by director Ehud Lazin, showcases the four-piece operating in tight sync. The room's scale — "just a few feet away," as Williamson put it — mirrors the closeness the band sought when recording their comeback material.

The Tuskegee-formed group originally went on hiatus after touring behind 2015's Sound & Color, with Howard pursuing solo work. Her late-2024 phone call reversed that trajectory, and the Soho Sessions set now stands as evidence of what grew from a single benefit appearance: more shows, shared demos, and ultimately a full album recorded more than a decade after the band's last one.

With I Must Be Dreaming now released and live appearances underway, the question the band has already answered is whether the reunion would last beyond one night in Tuscaloosa. The album, the Soho Sessions performance, and the Lazin-directed premiere of "Gimme All Your Love" all point in the same direction: Alabama Shakes are playing together again, and audiences can now watch from as close as Rolling Stone's exclusive footage allows.