Oteil Burbridge & Lamar Williams Jr. Bring Together All-Star Band For ‘The Offering’

Bassist Oteil Burbridge and vocalist Lamar Williams Jr. assembled an impressive assemblage of talent in Iceland to record a new album. The Offering arrives via Floki Studios on May 1, including newly released single “The Way We Rise.”

Burbridge and Williams Jr. are joined on the eight-track album by drummer John Morgan Kimock, percussionist Weedie Braimah, organist Melvin Seals of the Jerry Garcia Band, pianist/violinist Jason Crosby and guitarists Tom Guarna and Jaden Lehman.

The genesis of The Offering dates back more than a decade to informal writing sessions held by the pair in Burbridge’s basement. Oteil was learning how to play banjo and came up with rhythmic and harmonic exercises to teach himself the instrument.

“I didn’t have any kind of aim in mind when we wrote these songs,” Burbridge remembered. “I was just learning to play the banjo, and those exercises ended up turning into songs.” The longtime Allman Brothers bassist showed his fellow ABB family member what he was working and asked him to come up with lyrics. “He did, so we just put two and two together.”

The resulting songs still needed to be finished and remained that way for years until Burbridge and Williams finally decided the time was right to arrange them. “It was mind-blowing that after all those years we came back and got to record this music,” Williams said.

Oteil Burbridge and Lamar Williams Jr. called up their talented friends and brought them to Alan Evans’ Floki Studios on Iceland’s Northern coast. The drummer, engineer and Soulive co-founder served as producer of the project. “There was snow on the ground, but a live volcano erupting at the same time — fire and ice,” Burbridge recalled. “It’s a magic place. You can feel it.”

The initial “offering” is “The Way We Rise,” which opens the album. Burbridge described the tune as a reflection on “how we get through hard times” and on “tenacity and perseverance,” adding that its closing groove feels “spiritually fortifying” and “like a strengthening thing.”

Watch the official visualizer for “The Way We Rise” below:

The Offering Tracklist

1. The Way We Rise
2. Hush
3. Love & War
4. Country Road
5. If You See Their Lips Moving
6. First Born
7. Water Under the Bridge
8. Time For the Sun To Rise