Judah & the Lion Announce Fifth Studio Album and Release New Track

By Timothy Yap Jan 11, 2024 04:54 PM EST

Nashville crossover folk heroes Judah & the Lion (Judah Akers and Brian Macdonald) will release The Process, their fifth studio album, on May 10 via Cletus the Van / Downtown Artist & Label Services. The 19-track album is a soul-baring song cycle that wrestles with the five stages of grief --- Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance --- and ultimately finds beauty and purpose in the pain.

Today, as the pre-order for The Process launched, the band shared their luminous new single, "Is What It Is."

Listen to "Is What It Is" HERE

"The song title is a direct quote from Peter Crone, a thought leader in human potential and performance," Judah says. "The past cannot change and attempting to change it can be deconstructive for the future. The key is acceptance - what's happening is meant to be happening because it is happening. This is a very powerful step in moving away from grief."

Judah & the Lion will return to the road this spring. The extensive North American tour will kick off on April 25 at PNC Music Pavilion in Charlotte, NC and include shows at Colorado's Red Rocks Amphitheatre (May 19) and The Rooftop at Pier 17 in NYC (May 31). For tickets, go HERE.

After recording 2022's Revival, singer-songwriter Judah decided to creatively face the fact that his own life had imploded. "I was fighting for my marriage, going crazy, and getting sick," he recalls. " I fought writing about what I was going through. Finally, a friend told me, 'If you don't write about the biggest heartbreak of your life, you can't be honest in your work.' And he was right."

Since Akers and Macdonald are both sons of therapists, groundbreaking psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross' five stages of grief came to mind as they began work on The Process. Judah explains, "It gave us a way to embody the tough and sometimes really negative emotions that I deal with in songs, but within a larger framework of empathy, forgiveness and hope."

The band began releasing songs from The Process last year. The new material has racked up nearly five million combined global streams to date and earned spots on numerous playlists across all DSPs, including Spotify's New Music Friday, Apple Music's New Music Daily and Amazon Music's Alternative Hits and Best of Rock 2023.

Praising "Son of a Gun" (feat. K. Flay), idobi noted, "The two alternative acts effortlessly blend their signature folk-rock sonics and irrefutably earworm-y basslines to craft the ideal late-fall track." "Leave It Better Than You Found It" (feat. Ruston Kelly) also earned accolades. V Magazine observed, "The heartwarming track's message arrives just in time for the holidays - and it's accompanied by a music video that will immediately lift viewers' spirits." American Songwriter said, "The heartfelt and energizing tune offers a hopeful perspective on the sometimes frustratingly unclear path we each travel."

Since their 2012 debut EP, Judah & the Lion have earned widespread acclaim for their genre-bending music, received Platinum/Gold certifications and amassed over 930 million career streams. Six of their hit singles have gone Top 15 on Alternative radio and the band won an iHeart Music Award for Best New Alt Rock Band of 2018.

The Process - Track Listing

1. DENIAL

2. Heartbreak Syndrome

3. F LA

4. ANGER

5. Floating in the Night

6. Great Decisions

7. Son of a Gun (feat. K. Flay)

8. BARGAINING

9. Starting Over

10. Is What It Is

11. DEPRESSION