Judah & the Lion are a folk-pop trio based in Nashville, Tennessee. Singer/guitarist Judah Akers met mandolinist Brian Macdonald and banjo player Nate Zuercher through mutual friends and the three began playing together in late 2011. Initially aligning themselves with the Christian music scene, their debut EP, First Fruits, was a worship-themed record that blended expansive folk and bluegrass with rich, old-timey harmonies. A year later, they returned with the more secular-oriented and pop-leaning Sweet Tennessee EP, which bore more of a resemblance to the uplifting nu-folk of Mumford & Sons and launched them into the Top 20 of the Billboard bluegrass and folk charts. Building on that momentum, they finally released their first full-length album, 2014's wistful Kids These Days, which rose to number four on Billboard's folk chart. For their follow-up, Judah & the Lion worked with producer Dave Cobb (Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell) to deliver 2016's Folk Hop n' Roll, an album that further blended their myriad influences from hip-hop to indie rock and folk. By the end of that year, their breakout single "Take It All Back" had reached number one on Billboard's Alternative Songs chart and they followed it up in February 2017 with "Suit and Jacket." A deluxe version of Folk Hop n' Roll appeared later that year and in 2018, the trio issued the double-sided single "Pep Talk + Quarter-Life Crisis." ~ Timothy Monger