Lamont Landers woke up around three in the morning. Getting up and on his way to the bathroom, he checked his phone.
There was a new text from Jaraveen Hill, the bassist in Landers’ band. It was a screenshot showing famed drummer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson had posted on Thompson’s Instagram a clip of Landers nailing the lead vocal from “The Rubberband Man,” a 1976 hit by R&B group The Spinners.
“I was like, ‘What the f—k is this?’” Landers recalls with a laugh, of seeing that screenshot. “I couldn’t sleep the rest of the night.”
Thompson, whose Instagram followers number more than 3 million, was now following Landers’ account. Today, there are 155,000 people following Landers on IG, including rap legend Snoop Dogg and several well-known actors, including Andy Garcia of “Ocean’s Eleven” and “The Untouchables” fame.
It’s a clear case of talent recognizing talent. Landers, who is based in Huntsville, is one of the city’s most gifted contemporary musicians. Perhaps the most gifted. A bespectacled redhead, Landers sings with the feel, grease and chops of a soul-man twice his age. He’s also nimble guitarist with a bluesy touch.
Landers is no stranger to big stages. In spring 2018, the Lamont Landers Band wowed on Fox TV’s “Showtime at The Apollo.” They did a hot version of Bill Withers funk-pop classic “Use Me” at Apollo Theater, the hallowed Harlem, N.Y. venue where legends like James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson broke through early in their careers.
In 2018, Anders released an excellent self-titled EP featuring the single “Into the Fold,” one AL.com’s “50 songs by Alabama musicians from 2018 to know.”
The Apollo performance helped score Landers a March 2019 gig at Tuscaloosa Amphitheater’s Bicentennial Bash, a daylong concert headlined by Grammy-winner Jason Isbell. That summer, Landers returned to TV. He appeared on top-rated NBC show “America’s Got Talent,” performing Al Green soul standard “Let’s Stay Together” in front of judges including Simon Cowell, the notoriously blunt “American Idol” heel, with whom Landers had a (staged) on-camera confrontation.
Since then, in addition to performing at local Huntsville clubs and festivals, the Lamont Landers Band toured regionally, including venues like New Orleans’ Maple Leaf Bar. This year, Landers dropped his latest single “Piece Of Me,” doing his impregnating coos over a stoned galactic groove.
Next year is shaping up to be maybe Landers’ biggest yet. He’s signed on with premier booking agency High Road Touring, whose roster includes the likes of Wilco, Phoebe Bridgers and Graham Nash. Landers also acquired management, in the form of Tom Gimbel, the recently departed general manager of iconic PBS live music series “Austin City Limits.”
A Decatur native now in his early 30s, Landers connected with Gimbel, who started up a new management company, via Nick Bockrath, lead guitarist with successful alt-rock band Cage the Elephant.
Recently, Gimbel texted Landers to tell him Landers had been offered a slot at the 2024 edition of Atlanta’s Shaky Knees, which draws attendance of about 40,000 each year and is one of the South’s top music festivals. Big names set for Shaky Knees ‘24 include Arcade Fire, Weezer and Queens of the Stone Age.
Landers will perform there on May 5, on the festival’s closing day, headlined by Foo Fighters and also boasting the likes of Billy Idol, Dinosaur Jr. and The Struts. He’s stoked to be on the same bill – even the bottom of the bill – as the Foos and their frontman Dave Grohl, formerly drummer with Nirvana.
“It might not seem like it just based on the way I sound and the music I play,” Landers says, “but I really love the Foo Fighters. They were kind of like a foundational band for me. I loved Nirvana when I was in my angsty teenage years and then it migrated to Foo Fighters. Man, if I could meet Dave Grohl, unlikely, but if I could that’d be amazing.”
As a big blues fan, Landers also hopes to catch young blues star Kingfish Ingram’s set later that day at Shaky Knees. Another Shaky Knees tie-in for Landers: He’s played Dinosaur Jr. guitarist J. Mascis’ signature Fender Jazzmaster for a couple years now.
At Shaky Knees, Landers and his band, which also features drummer Brandon Cohn and keyboardist Kevin Canada, will do a 45-minute set. He plans on doing most of his 2018 EP, maybe a couple covers and a good chunk of the debut release from Player’s Club, his upcoming project with Alabama Shakes/Brittany Howard bassist Zack Cockrell.
Landers says he and Cockrell are shopping the completed Player’s Club EP, cut at Florence’s Sun Drop Sound Studio, owned by Grammy winning singer/songwriter John Paul White. Alabama Shakes keyboardist Ben Tanner, who cofounded indie label Single Lock Records with White, recorded the sessions.
So, what’s the vibe of the Players Club material? Landers says, “It’s got the feeling of an old soul record, but it’s also got some Americana elements in it. It’s got some rock elements in it. It’s just got a good mixture of a lot of the wells me and Zach’s draw from.” Basically, classic soul run through a contemporary indie rock filter.
Landers and Cockrell did the Players Club EP “kind of Steely Dan-esque,” Landers says. “We wrote everything, all the parts, every intricacy, including the drums and stuff, and then we go in and do as much of it as we could on our own and if we need to hire out, we would.”
In addition to Landers on guitar/vocals and Cockrell on bass, each played some drums on Player’s Club tracks. Derrek Phillips, known for his work with artists ranging from Hank Williams Jr. to composer Charlie Hunter, also contributed drums. Muscle Shoals legend Spooner Oldham added keyboards.
Player’s Club will make their live local debut with a Dec. 23 show at Gold Sprint Coffee, whose cozy vibey stage has become Huntsville’s best place to see indie shows.
For years, Landers had resisted joining TikTok, the mini video based social platform massively popular with youth. Six months or so ago, he finally relented and started posting TikTok clips of his beautifully sung covers of songs ranging from “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” to “I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow.” Those clips have been liked more than 2 million times. He now has more than 339,000 TikTok followers.
“It popped off,” Landers says. Now he uses TikTok as a testing ground for his covers clips. “If it does really well on TikTok then I’ll post it on Instagram.”
That’s what happened with “The Rubberband Man.” On Instagram, it took about two weeks for the clip to catch on. Then a couple of Instagram users Thompson follows reposted and shared the cover, leading to Thompson getting hip to Landers. “All these little things,” Landers says, “have kind of come into place.”
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