Brittany Howard, stepping away from Alabama Shakes, shines on solo debut ‘Jaime’

Brittany Howard playing Lollapalooza 2015 at Grant Park. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia / Sun-Times

Brittany Howard doesn’t play it safe on “Jaime” (ATO Records), the Alabama Shakes singer-guitarist’s 11-track solo debut.

She experiments with musical styles more than she typically has with the Shakes, which stick to a more classic rock sound. On “Jaime,” Howard brings in gospel, lo-fi and funk influences.

And she doesn’t pull any punches in terms of subject matter, tackling religion in “He Loves Me” and race in “Goat Head.”

Even seemingly simple songs, like “Georgia,” carry weight. In a world in which lesbian love songs are a mainstream rarity, this tender track comes off as powerful and vulnerable at the same time.

“He Loves Me” samples church sermons, as Howard sings, “I don’t go to church anymore.” The song confronts the divide between religious teachings and real-world lifestyles head on. “I know He still loves me when I’m smoking blunts / Loves me when I’m drinking too much,” she sings. And later: “He doesn’t judge me.”

Just as Howard brings to light the gray area of religion in “He Loves Me,” she does the same with race in “Goat Head.” The song offers a personal account of her experience as a child born to a white mother and a black father. She learns that her father’s car was vandalized — someone not only slashed his tires but also put a goat’s head in the back.

The track starts with a chilled-out beat, not introducing the shocking imagery of the goat head until two minutes into the song’s three minutes.

The image is meant as a jolt and to hammer home the point that conversations on race can’t be painted into a pretty picture when the underlying history reflects a grotesque past. She alludes to this past and to her own struggle with identity.

With this sort of honesty, Howard shows she stands tall within her band and also on her own.

Brittany Howard at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival on April 29, 2017.