Bassist Oteil Burbridge and vocalist Lamar Williams. Jr. have announced the release of The Offering, a full-length studio album coming out via Floki Studios on May 1st. Recorded at the rising destination studio in Iceland’s Northern Coast and produced by drummer, engineer, and Soulive co-founder Alan Evans, the collaborative project shares the first offering off of the new album, “The Way We Rise.” Listen to the debut single HERE.
The album features an all-star lineup of drummer John Morgan Kimock, percussionist Weedie Braimah, organist Melvin Seals of the Jerry Garcia Band, pianist and violinist Jason Crosby, guitarists Tom Guarna and Jaden Lehman — musicians whose overlapping histories connect the Allman Brothers Band, Dead & Company, the Jerry Garcia Band, Soulive, and West African percussion traditions.
“The Way We Rise” opens the album with a message of endurance. Burbridge describes it 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.”
Across its eight songs, The Offering centers on melody, groove, and message rather than genre, drawing together Southern soul, gospel harmony, improvisational rock, and African-rooted rhythm carried through Burbridge’s banjo explorations into song-driven ensemble music.
The music began more than a decade earlier during informal writing sessions between Burbridge and Williams in Burbidge’s basement studio in Georgia, where Burbridge was teaching himself banjo and developing rhythmic and harmonic exercises as a way of learning the instrument’s structure and lineage.
“I didn’t have any kind of aim in mind when we wrote these songs,” Burbridge says. “I was just learning to play the banjo, and those exercises ended up turning into songs.” He brought the melodies to Williams and asked whether he heard lyrics within them. “He did, so we just put two and two together,” Burbridge adds.
The material remained unfinished for years — written but not arranged — carried through touring schedules, family life, and other projects until the collaborators unexpectedly circled back. “It was mind-blowing that after all those years we came back and got to record this music,” Williams says.
Their connection reaches back to the late 1990s in the extended orbit of the Allman Brothers Band. Burbridge first gained national recognition with Aquarium Rescue Unit before joining the Allman Brothers in 1997, performing with the group for seventeen years and later co-founding Dead & Company.
Williams — the son of Allman Brothers bassist Lamar Williams — forged his own path as a vocalist, songwriter, and bandleader shaped by gospel phrasing, soul repertoire, and years of touring. What began as porch writing between friends slowly became the foundation of The Offering, though more than ten years passed before the music was finally recorded.
Producer Alan Evans provided the bridge from unfinished material to a completed album. His path into production emerged organically through years of recording, mixing, and problem-solving in the studio, often finding himself asked to guide projects once musicians recognized his broader creative perspective. “It all comes down to the song,” Evans says.
Having previously worked with Burbridge at Flóki Studios, he returned to Iceland determined to capture a live, ensemble-driven performance rather than assemble recordings piece by piece. The demos, Evans explains, revealed something distinct from any expected Dead-adjacent sound, pointing instead toward a more song-centered approach shaped by banjo textures, deep groove, and layered influences. This ensemble, Evans says, could perform “both live and in the studio at a high level.”
Flóki Studios sits on Iceland’s northern coastline near the Arctic Circle, designed as a residential space for extended sessions far removed from touring routes and city studios. Reaching the building in winter required navigating deep snowdrifts and, at times, walking the final distance on foot. “There was snow on the ground, but a live volcano erupting at the same time — fire and ice,” Burbridge recalls. “It’s a magic place. You can feel it.”
For Williams, the isolation reshaped attention itself. Removed from routine and surrounded by ocean, mountains, and silence, the environment felt “like another planet,” he says, with “nothing to do but focus on the work and be at peace with that.”
When the band finally played the long-gestating songs together from beginning to end, the years between writing and recording seemed to dissolve. Evans remembers goosebumps and silence in the control room — the shared awareness that the music had crossed into something deeper.
Williams hopes the finished recording carries meaning beyond style or lineage. He hopes listeners feel “excited and thrilled about hearing something so universally new to the sonic.” He describes the music as “loving, honest, open, passionate,” adding that “we can all feel it together.”
Completing The Offering closed a process measured in years rather than months — nearly twelve from genesis to full execution. Williams describes the release simply: “My soul is buzzing. We finally put it in the universe.”
Music from The Offering will be performed during a string of Oteil & Friends tour dates throughout May along with July festival appearances at GratefulFest in Garrettsville, OH and Roots Rock Revival in Big Indian, NY.
Tour Dates:
May 1 – The Joy Theater, New Orleans, LA (w/ The Heavyweights)
May 9 – The Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA
May 10 – The Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA
May 12 – Nevermore Hall, Baltimore, MD
May 13 – Brooklyn Bowl, Brooklyn, NY
May 14 – Brooklyn Bowl, Brooklyn, NY
May 15 – The Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY
May 16 – Sun Patio at Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, CT
May 17 – Royale, Boston, MA
May 18 – Greenfield Lake Amphitheater, Wilmington, NC (w/ Toy Factory Project)
May 19 – Greenfield Lake Amphitheater, Wilmington, NC (w/ Toy Factory Project)
May 20 – Music at Maymont, Richmond, VA (w/ Toy Factory Project)
May 21 – DelFest, Cumberland, MD (w/ Toy Factory Project)
May 28 – Iroquois Amphitheater, Louisville, KY
May 29 – Atomic Block Party, St. Louis, MO
May 30 – Park West, Chicago, IL
May 31 – The Pabst Theater, Milwaukee, WI
July 25 – GratefulFest, Garrettsville, OH
July 27-31 – Roots Rock Revival, Big Indian, NY (Music Masters Collective Participant)
ABOUT OTEIL BURBRIDGE
Two-time Grammy-winning bassist Oteil Burbridge has been touring and recording for over three decades. He was a founding member of the early 90s southern jazz-fusion group Col. Bruce Hampton & the Aquarium Rescue Unit with Jimmy Herring, Jeff Sipe and others that had a lasting and influential impact on artists for decades to follow. That led him to join the iconic southern rock group The Allman Brothers Band as their final bass player during their latter day lineup in the 1990s and into the 2000s. During his tenure with The Brothers, they earned two Grammy nominations for best rock instrumental in 2003 and in 2004. In 2012, Oteil received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for his 15 year contribution to The Allman Brothers Band as the longest running bassist in the band’s history.
In 2015 Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart joined forces with John Mayer to form “Dead & Company” with Burbridge on bass and Jeff Chimenti on keys. Dead & Company has headlined ten tours from 2015 to 2023 and played legendary stadiums across the country including Folsom Field, Autzen Stadium, Oracle Park, Citi Field, Fenway Park and Dodger Stadium. Beginning in May of 2024, Oteil will be joining Dead & Company as they begin a residency at Sphere Las Vegas, consisting of 24 shows in the summer of 2024.
“Oteil & Friends”, which features a rotating cast of all-star musicians (including Melvin Seals, John Kadlecik, Tom Guarana, Jeff Chimenti, John Morgan Kimock, Jennifer Hartswick, Jason Crosby, Natalie Cressman, Lamar Williams Jr., and more) began touring in 2017, and continue to play shows and festivals today. In September of 2023, Oteil released Lovely View of Heaven, an emotional tribute to the musical legacy of Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter while carving a unique path of its own.
In May 2024, Oteil released “Love and War” recorded live at the 2024 Dead Ahead Festival in Cancun, Mexico. This new single, co-written with Lamar Williams Jr., features Melvin Seals, Duane Betts, Jason Crosby, Tom Guarna, John Kimock, Jennifer Hartswick, Natalie Cressman and Ryan Zoidis.
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ABOUT LAMAR WILLIAMS JR.
To Lamar Williams Jr., all music is soul music. As the son of Lamar Williams, bassist for The Allman Brothers Band during their commercial peak, the singer grew up in Macon, Georgia. He was steeped in and shaped by the music of legends, enriching himself in vocal stylings from Gregg Allman to Otis Redding and beyond.
Currently, Lamar juggles touring and recording with Oteil Burbridge, Trouble No More, and the Allman Betts Family Revival. Burbridge, a key member of the Allman Brothers and Dead & Company, has tapped Lamar to tour with Oteil & Friends and to sing on his upcoming album.
Lamar played an integral part from 2019 to 2024 in The New Mastersounds, the jazz/blues/funk group out of Leeds, UK. The group’s 2019 cut “Let’s Go Back” was used in a national ad for Walgreens, and Nascar fans will be hearing another cut from the band featuring Lamar in a forthcoming spot.
Lamar also toured with the North Mississippi Allstars for two years and was featured on their 2022 Grammy-nominated album Set Sail. In 2022 and 2023 he performed with jazz project Big Band of Brothers (alongside his father’s lifelong friend and original Allman Brothers member Jaimoe). His work has taken him quite literally all over the world, from performing in stadiums for crowds of close to 100,000 to hot clubs in Tokyo and Europe.
“Music tames us as much as it changes us,” Lamar says, noting that performing live often acts as a powerful unifying force for people. After spending so much time around many of the best musicians on the planet, he can’t help but feel inspired to dig into his own artistry, too; he’s consistently working to create in a way that achieves the timeless quality he loves in so much of his favorite music.
Always leveraging his wide-ranging network of songwriters and musician friends, Williams tends to keep one eye on the road. But after so many years in the spotlight, Lamar has no intention of slowing down, and he’s gearing up to take center stage in a bold new way — one you don’t want to miss.
CONNECT WITH LAMAR WILLIAMS JR
By: Jon D'Auria