{"id":4991,"date":"2019-03-13T16:07:07","date_gmt":"2019-03-13T22:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wildflowerfestival.com\/?p=4991"},"modified":"2019-03-13T16:07:07","modified_gmt":"2019-03-13T22:07:07","slug":"the-heart-of-a-lion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wildflowerfestival.com\/the-heart-of-a-lion\/","title":{"rendered":"THE HEART OF A LION"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Folk-Hop Hitmakers Dig Deep with New LP and Debut at\nWildflower! Arts &amp; Music Festival<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By guest contributor: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/morgan.kosinski\">Morgan Kosinski<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the past three years, <a href=\"https:\/\/judahandthelion.com\/music\">Judah &amp; the Lion<\/a> has become one of the most sought-after and genre-defining acts to come out of Nashville. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Making their Wildflower! Arts\n&amp; Music Festival debut, fans can expect to not only jam to their hits from\nthe last 8 years, but be invited on a deeply visceral and personal experience\nas they play songs from their soul-searching new LP, <em>Pep Talks<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Since its 2011 inception at\nBelmont University, Judah &amp; the Lion has been a family unto itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eponymous lead singer Judah\nAkers was from nearby Cookeville, an aspiring baseball player with a secret\nlove for folk guitar. Brian Macdonald hailed from Chicagoland and was mostly\nobsessed with piano. Nate Zeurcher, was a son of symphonic artists in Colorado,\nbut preferred metal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Together, their quirky differences helped shape their inaugural sound into a bluegrass-heavy debut: produced by Dave Cobb (Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell) <em>Kids These Days<\/em>, and its mold-breaking follow-up, <em>Folk Hop n&#8217; Roll<\/em>, were both created in just two weeks.<em>  <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"636\" height=\"421\" src=\"https:\/\/wildflowerfestival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/05-judah-and-the-lion-bb2-beat-chart-breaker-2017-billboard-1548.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4992\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wildflowerfestival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/05-judah-and-the-lion-bb2-beat-chart-breaker-2017-billboard-1548.jpg 636w, https:\/\/wildflowerfestival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/05-judah-and-the-lion-bb2-beat-chart-breaker-2017-billboard-1548-480x318.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 636px, 100vw\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p> In January of 2017, Billboard magazine named Judah &amp; the Lion their first \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/articles\/news\/magazine-feature\/7661624\/judah-the-lion-take-it-all-back-chartbreaker\">Chartbreaker Artist<\/a>\u201d with the success of the single, \u201cTake It All Back.\u201d The band later went on to win iHeart Radio\u2019s Best New Alternative Artist in 2018.&nbsp;  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In an interview with <a href=\"about:blank\">Renea Weaver<\/a> the band describes the single: \u201cTake It All Back\u201d is a\nstatement and reminder to ourselves. Why do we do what we do? What is important\nto us? Would we trade all of this for things that genuinely matter in our\nlives?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube aligncenter wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Judah &amp; the Lion - Take It All Back 2.0 (Official Video)\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oomkO5nHxnY?feature=oembed\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>With appearances on both\npopular television shows, like Conan and James Corden, in addition to sold out\ntour dates around the country, it would seem like Judah &amp; The Lion were in\nheaven\u2026but we uncovered that wasn\u2019t exactly the case. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The last two years should&#8217;ve\nbeen the best of their lives, as the Nashville band toured behind a powerful\nsingle and a genre-upending album, sharing stages with heroes and playing to\noceans of fans. But as everything was coming together for them, Akers&#8217; family\nwas falling apart in a black hole of alcoholism, affairs, death, and divorce. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From that tension arises <em>Pep Talks<\/em>, the trio&#8217;s third LP and a\nhard left turn into deeply personal terrain. For <em>Pep Talks<\/em>, they took three months, co-produced as a band alongside\ntwo friends (Brian&#8217;s college roommate Drew Long, and local artist Daniel\nJames), and kept the guest list tight: drummer and hero to the band Darren King\n(ex Mutemath), Kacey Musgraves, whose transcendent <em>Golden Hour<\/em> was a powerful influence, and the genre-flouting tour\nbuddy, Jon Bellion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube aligncenter wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/O1vnCZfCQTA\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Knowing they had something new\non their hands, Judah, Brian, and Nate, took their time crafting a set of songs\nthat not only shores up their one-of-a-kind\nsound\u2014a heart-pounding whirl of folk, bluegrass, rock, hip-hop and electronic\nproduction\u2014but takes the listener on a bracingly candid, surprisingly anthemic,\njourney from the kind of pain that tears your whole world apart, to the sort of\nhard-won hope that can bridge the deepest of rifts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><strong>&#8220;Up to this point, the band&#8217;s message has mostly been: &#8216;Live your best life! Pursue your dreams! Follow your heart!'&#8221;<\/strong> says Judah, <strong>&#8220;We had to start this record with broken-ness, with this cry that says, &#8216;I don&#8217;t want to hide this from anyone anymore. I&#8217;m going through something. I need help.'&#8221;<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Many of <em>Pep Talks<\/em>&#8216; songs were written on the bus after the band&#8217;s high\nenergy shows, emotions and scenes flooding Judah&#8217;s head as he struggled to\nsleep. Empathy courses through yearning Kacey Musgraves duet\n&#8220;Pictures&#8221; as he writes from the point of view of his mom packing up\nthe family home. Entropy reigns in the relentless, synth-and-banjo-driven\n&#8220;Over My Head&#8221; where he tries in vain to push the pain away: <em>&#8220;Hydrate, caffein-ate, medicate,\nrepeat.&#8221;<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-instagram aligncenter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-instagram\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BumGvjQH5pp\/\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><strong>&#8220;We&#8217;ve never had an environment that was so relaxed\u2014where everybody could speak so freely and be themselves and have fun,&#8221; <\/strong>says Brian. Nate adds, <strong>&#8220;Judah&#8217;s openness was inspiring, and I feel so much more ownership with this project because we all decided to believe in ourselves.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s a thing you can actually feel as you work your way through <em>Pep Talks<\/em>. The group got closer and better as Nate and Brian encouraged Judah to share his truth, and the intentionality of his recovery was in turn reflected by the music. Similarly, once they got to the other side, the Akers too were in a better place: stronger, realer and more honest about who they are, where they&#8217;ve been and what&#8217;s next. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because the point of sharing all this hard truth isn&#8217;t to shame anyone; \u201cIt&#8217;s the opposite really, the idea that being broken and admitting it is unifying\u2014fallibility is our most common trait and if we sing about it from a stage, others will sing along.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-spotify aligncenter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-embed-aspect-9-16 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Spotify Embed: Over my head\" width=\"100%\" height=\"80\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/track\/6r5tlCMur8Vngv3n0DzOFl?utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Experience Judah &amp; The Lion at the <a href=\"https:\/\/wildflowerfestival.com\">Wildflower! Arts &amp; Music Festival<\/a> and prepare for a deeply moving and inspiring set on May 18<sup>th<\/sup> at 8:45pm!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the past three years, Judah &#038; the Lion has become one of the most sought-after and genre-defining acts to come out of Nashville. Making their Wildflower! Arts &#038; Music Festival debut, fans can expect to not only jam to their hits from the last eight years, but be invited to a deeply visceral and personal experience as they play songs from their soul-searching new LP, Pep Talks. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":4409,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"iawp_total_views":8,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,22],"tags":[575,1113,1110,1112,1118,1119,1109,804,1111,1116,1120,29],"class_list":["post-4991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-entertainment","tag-belmont-university","tag-billboard","tag-brian-macdonald","tag-chart-breaker","tag-dave-cobb","tag-jason-isbell","tag-judah-akers","tag-morgan-kosinski","tag-nate-zeurcher","tag-renea-weaver","tag-sturgill-simpson","tag-wildflower-arts-music-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildflowerfestival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildflowerfestival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildflowerfestival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildflowerfestival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildflowerfestival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wildflowerfestival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildflowerfestival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildflowerfestival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildflowerfestival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildflowerfestival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}