Article Contributed by Champagne House Media
Published on 2026-04-11
Oteil Burbridge & Lamar Williams Jr. Champion Love Over Hate in New Single "Hush"
Bassist Oteil Burbridge and vocalist Lamar Williams Jr. continue the rollout of their forthcoming collaborative album The Offering with the release of its second single, “Hush,” out today. A slow-burning Southern soul meditation rooted in love, peace, and emotional clarity, the track is a centerpiece on the album with a potent, thematic statement, in Williams' words to “block out all of that nonsense” and “remember that there is more love in the world than hate.” The full-length album arrives May 1 via Flóki Studios, recorded on Iceland’s northern coast and produced by drummer, engineer, and Soulive co-founder Alan Evans.
While much of The Offering grew out of Burbridge’s banjo-based writing, “Hush” emerged from he and Williams shaping a deliberate sonic vision. Burbridge says they were “trying to capture a more old school Memphis, Macon, Muscle Shoals vibe,” leaning into a Southern soul feel that fits Williams’s phrasing. The end result is a song that is unhurried with a deep pocket that allows the groove and the song’s message to breathe and stand at the forefront.
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.
Watch "Hush" Official Visualizer
Watch "Hush" Performed Live at The Parker on 12/31/25
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)
August 1 - Jampacked, Richmond, VA
August 2 - French Broad River Brewery, Asheville, NC
August 5 - The Muse, Nantucket, MA
August 6 - Summer Stage at Treehouse, Deerfield, MA
August 7 - Center for the Arts, Nashua, NH
August 8 - Jay Peak, Jay, VT
August 9 - Lincoln Hill Farms, Canandaigua, NY
