When Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit take the stage in Huntsville on May 13, it will be an extra special homecoming for the band. Their performance, along with those of other Alabama artists Brittany Howard, Drive-by Truckers, Emmylou Harris, John Paul White, St. Paul and the Broken Bones, and Mavis Staples is part of the First Waltz, a grand opening weekend-long event for the city’s new state-of-the-art music and event venue Orion Amphitheater. The venue, developed by Mumford and Sons’ band member and owner of entertainment and hospitality group Venue Group Ben Lovett, will usher the beginning of a new era for the city’s growing music scene. 

Lilly Hart’s junior year of high school was supposed to be the busiest time of her life. During the spring of 2020, the high schooler from Lilburn, Georgia was set to travel to several cities as part of her school’s basketball team, play in the golf state championship, and finish the year with a 4.0 GPA. All that changed when March rolled around, and COVID-19 turned everything upside down. Never one to sit still, Hart immediately pivoted and began exploring another passion of hers: music. “I had written before but this time I took it seriously,” she says. “I started to set goals and one of those goals was to release a song on all platforms. It was a hard process to navigate but I ended up reaching that goal when ‘Love is Addiction’ came out in the fall of 2020. After I released one, I kept writing and setting goals.”

Oscar-winning filmmaker, musician, producer and composer, Questlove, took a meaningful approach to the year’s theme of “Gilded Glamour” by “representing for African-Americans in this country.” Questlove explained in an interview with Vogue that “because the Gilded period is a little bit different for our story… I wanted to highlight Black women who have sacrificed for the country. So I’m rockin’ their quilt right now.”

The Agriculture Adventure Trail encourages the public to engage with local agricultural businesses in a fun and educational way. You’ll find all kinds of cool things to do on the Agriculture Adventures Trail: hands-on farms, orchards, farmer’s markets, made-on-the-farm products, farms with animals, U-pick farms, vineyards & wineries, farm-to-table dining, corn mazes, pumpkin patches, living history farms, farm festivals, and so much more!

Here are 4 highlights from the 35 stops along the Agriculture Adventures Trail.

Five porches on Pratt Avenue in Five Points Historic District will host musicians from Huntsville, Nashville and the Shoals. Bring a blanket, chair and cooler to enjoy a unique evening of music.

The Alabama Symphony Orchestra began with a group of volunteer musicians in 1921. Over the last 100 years, a small volunteer ensemble transformed into the state’s only full-time professional orchestra. In addition to the 54 talented musicians—saxophonists, flutists, harpists, trombonists, and more—who bring the Alabama Symphony Orchestra to life, the ensemble is often accompanied by the ASO Chorus. 

Green beer, Irish whiskey, and drinks like the unfortunately named Irish Car Bomb will drench St. Patrick’s Day parties across Alabama and the United States this month.

If you can’t make the pilgrimage to Ireland or see Chicago’s famous green river for St. Patrick’s Day, then celebrating at one of Alabama’s many parades or events is your next best bet. This year’s holiday falls on a Thursday, so celebrations across the state span the week before and after. Whether you want to grab a pint of Guinness and dance an Irish jig, or get dressed in head-to-toe green and march in a parade, there are plenty of ways to find your pot of gold (and maybe even a bit of luck!) this St. Patrick’s Day. 

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In Anniston, located an hour east of Birmingham, you can learn all about the Freedom Riders’ harrowing journey as they protested segregated bus seating. On May 14, 1961, seven members of the Congress of Racial Equality boarded a Greyhound bus in Atlanta on its way to Birmingham.

The Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association has created a new podcast all about north Alabama. The Unexpected Adventures in North Alabama podcast spotlights everything that makes the Mountain Lakes region so special. From the well known to the unknown, it’s all there, just a listen away.

In 2015, friends and college students Melvin Griffin, Lauren Williams, and Pelatiah Ishmael “I$H” Morgan, started a radio show on UAB’s student-run station Blaze Radio. Every week, they’d get together to talk all things hip-hop, from new music releases to their opinions on artists. Their passion for music was evident, but that passion grew to new heights once they shifted their focus from mainstream artists to local up-and-comers. When that passion outsized their humble college radio show, the three friends created The Kickback, a creative collective that promotes local talent through music showcases featuring local and regional rappers, R&B singers, and hip-hop artists. Their organization also supports other creatives through regular art exhibitions, pop-up shops, and events for local artists and makers.  

When people think of America’s most notable music cities, several Southern cities come to mind. There’s New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz; Memphis, where rock ‘n’ roll got its start; and Nashville, our nation’s country music capital. But there’s one more place that should be added to the list of legendary music towns, and it’s Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Located in North Alabama, the Florence-Muscle Shoals metropolitan area includes Florence, Muscle Shoals, Tuscumbia, and Sheffield. Together, the four cities make up The Shoals, an area with rich music traditions dating to the 1960s and extending into present day. 

When it comes to ringing in the new year, Alabama may not have a giant ball drop or thousands of people crowding into Times Square, but we certainly know how to celebrate. With parties and events happening across the state, from the Magic City to the Rocket City, the shores of the Gulf and beyond, here are the best ways to usher in 2022 in Alabama.

With Christmas right around the corner, everyone’s got holiday gift shopping on their minds. Whether you’re hunting for the perfect something for your picky mother-in-law, school-age nieces and nephews, or that one friend who seems to have it all, there’s something to be said for picking a gift out in person rather than simply hitting “add to cart” on a website.

One of the best things about the holiday season is the hype. Hear us out. Not only do we celebrate the holidays on the dates of their actual occurrence, we get to spend several weeks preparing for their arrival with events, activities, and parties all jam-packed into the month of December. Since the four weeks from Thanksgiving to Christmas often feel like a mad dash to get everything done—from buying gifts to decorating and baking—we’ve narrowed down the endless list of holiday activities into seven manageable categories. Whether it’s seeing a holiday movie, going ice skating, or sipping on a festive cocktail, here are our favorite ways to get in on the holiday hype this year. 

With the holidays creeping closer and closer, there’s no time like the present to get in the Christmas spirit. When you’re not busy baking gingerbread cookies or trimming your tree, there are plenty of festivities across the state. One of our favorites? Checking out Alabama’s many extravagant holiday light displays. From zoos and parks to the historic grounds of historic homes, some of our favorite Alabama attractions have transformed into dazzling light displays just in time to ring in the holidays. Check out a few of our favorites below. 

Paul Attaway retired from a 30-year career as a small business entrepreneur to pursue his calling as a writer. In his debut novel, “Blood in the Low Country,” Paul tells the story of Monty Atkins who attended college at The University of Alabama, and yes, thinks Bear Bryant walks on water. He’s a good man who loves God and his wife and kids. But he also loves the Lowcountry, Charleston specifically, golf, baseball, college football and Shrimp ’n Grits.

Every fall, monarch butterflies travel thousands of miles to escape south for the winter. Their striking orange-and-black wings are often seen as a symbol of transformation and growth. In Mexican culture, they’re thought to represent the souls of ancestors bringing comfort to loved ones on earth. 

A new book from Gritty South, an imprint of Bluewater Publications, aims to remove the rose-tinted lenses and cut the sugar-plum sweetness often associated with holiday stories, and instead replace them with true-life tales of what it means to celebrate the season in the South. “Gritty Southern Christmas Anthology,” out now, is a collection of short stories from 16 Southern authors telling the authentic story of Christmas in the South. 

Founded in 1881 as the Negro Normal School in Tuskegee, Tuskegee University was built on a dream from Booker T. Washington and Lewis Adams to provide a top-tier educational institution for African Americans. Since then, the school has consistently been ranked as one of the country’s top five HBCUs by the U.S. News and World Report. Tuskegee University is also the only college campus designated as one of the National Park Service’s National Historic Sites.