Brittany Howard is the charismatic singer and guitar player of the highly successful indie rock band Alabama Shakes. On her own, Howard tends to have a freer hand and her more experimental side comes to the front. Her songs freely pick and choose from a smorgasbord of American musical traditions, roots rock and rockabilly rhythms, neo-soul vocals, jazzy chords, spoken words, Robert Glasper, and experimental tunes (see History Repeats). But at the end, she always comes home to R&B and soul, putting the bow on all of it with that glorious big voice of hers.