Article Contributed by Champagne House Media
Published on 2026-03-15
Oteil Burbridge & Lamar Williams Jr. Announce Collaborative Album ‘The Offering’ Out May 1 via Flóki Studios
Bassist Oteil Burbridge and vocalist Lamar Williams Jr. have announced the release of The Offering, a full-length studio album coming out via Flóki Studios on May 1st. Recorded at the rising destination studio on 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.”
The album features an all-star lineup including drummer John Morgan Kimock, percussionist Weedie Braimah, organist Melvin Seals of the Jerry Garcia Band, pianist and violinist Jason Crosby, and 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 Burbridge’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)
