Judah & the Lion

Judah & the Lion are a Nashville band whose indie folk roots intersect with electronic elements and bold stadium-sized alt-pop. Helmed by singer/songwriter Judah Akers, they found early chart success with 2014's Kids These Days, before breaking into the mainstream with "Take it All Back" form their Alternative chart-topping 2016 album Folk Hop n' Roll. Over the coming years, the initial trio slimmed down to a duo and issued a trio of cathartic, extremely personal albums in Pep Talks (2019), Revival (2022), and The Process (2024). Emerging on the other side, the band looked back on their journey with 2026's cinematic and reflective I Am a Prism.

Singer/guitarist Akers met mandolinist Brian Macdonald and banjo player Nate Zuercher through mutual friends and the three began playing together in late 2011. Initially aligning themselves with the Christian music scene, their debut EP, First Fruits, was a worship-themed record that blended expansive folk and bluegrass with rich, old-timey harmonies. A year later, they returned with the more secular-oriented and pop-leaning Sweet Tennessee EP, which bore more of a resemblance to the uplifting indie folk of Mumford & Sons and launched them into the Top 20 of the Billboard bluegrass and folk charts.

Building on that momentum, they finally released their first full-length album, 2014's wistful Kids These Days, which rose to number four on Billboard's folk chart. For their follow-up, Judah & the Lion worked with producer Dave Cobb (Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell) to deliver 2016's Folk Hop n' Roll, an album that further blended their myriad influences from hip-hop to indie rock and folk. By the end of that year, their breakout single, "Take It All Back," had reached number one on Billboard's Alternative Songs chart and they followed it up in February 2017 with the similarly successful "Suit and Jacket," as well as releasing a deluxe version of Folk Hop n' Roll.

A single, "Pep Talk" b/w "Quarter-Life Crisis," appeared in 2018 and was later included on Judah & the Lion's third full-length, the expansive and deeply personal Pep Talks, which came out in 2019. After a 2020 EP of remixes, the band followed up with the non-album single "Beautiful Anyway."

Two years later, following a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Judah & the Lion unveiled their hopeful and cinematic fourth long-player, Revival. Recorded as a duo, it was the group's first not to included banjoist and founding member Zuercher who amicably parted ways with the band in 2021. Following the album's release, they embarked on the Happy Again Tour, before joining Needtobreathe on tour as a supporting act.

In May 2024, the duo returned with their fifth album, The Process. Conceptualized in part around the five stages of grief, it featured guest spots from Ruston Kelly on "Leave It Better Than You Found It" and K.Flay on Son of a Gun." Having explored themes of grief, addiction, and mental health over their three previous albums, Akers and Macdonald found themselves in a more settled state on 2026's I Am a Prism, their sixth full-length. Sonically expansive and deliberately reflective, the release marked Judah & the Lion's debut for the Dualtone label. ~ Timothy Monger