Judah & the Lion

A Nashville-based indie folk trio led by singer/songwriter Judah Akers, Judah & the Lion fuse vocal harmonies and acoustic textures with expansive pop hooks and occasional electronic flourishes. The group began in a CCM vein before shifting toward secular material, achieving initial chart traction via their 2014 debut Kids These Days. Two years afterward their sophomore effort yielded the breakout single “Take It All Back,” a hybrid of hip-hop and indie folk that held the top spot on Billboard’s Alternative Songs chart throughout 2016. Subsequent releases—2019’s introspective Pep Talks, 2022’s uplifting Revival, and 2024’s The Process—continued to trace the band’s stylistic progression.

Akers first connected with mandolinist Brian Macdonald and banjoist Nate Zuercher through shared acquaintances, and the three started performing together near the end of 2011. Their earliest work remained rooted in the Christian market; the worship-oriented debut EP First Fruits merged sweeping folk and bluegrass elements with dense vintage harmonies. The following year brought the more secular, pop-inflected Sweet Tennessee EP, whose sound echoed the buoyant nu-folk of Mumford & Sons and carried the trio into the upper reaches of Billboard’s bluegrass and folk tallies.

That foundation supported the release of their wistful full-length debut, Kids These Days, which climbed to number four on the folk chart in 2014. For the next album the band enlisted producer Dave Cobb—known for his work with Sturgill Simpson and Jason Isbell—to shape 2016’s Folk Hop n’ Roll, a project that further integrated hip-hop, indie rock, and folk influences. By year’s end “Take It All Back” had reached number one on the Alternative Songs chart; the similarly successful “Suit and Jacket” followed in February 2017, accompanied by a deluxe edition of the album.

A 2018 single pairing “Pep Talk” with “Quarter-Life Crisis” later appeared on the expansive, autobiographical third album Pep Talks, issued in 2019. After issuing a 2020 remix EP also titled Pep Talks, the band released the standalone track “Beautiful Anyway.”

Following a pandemic-related hiatus, Judah & the Lion returned in 2022 with their hopeful, cinematic fourth album Revival. Recorded as a duo, the set marked the first project without founding banjoist Zuercher, who had parted ways amicably the previous year. The group then launched the Happy Again Tour before serving as support for Needtobreathe.

In May 2024 they delivered their fifth album, The Process, a conceptual work framed around the five stages of grief. Guest contributions included Ruston Kelly on “Leave It Better Than You Found It” and K.Flay on “Son of a Gun.”