Needtobreathe performs at Paramount Theatre in Oakland, Calif. on May 8, 2024. Sean Liming/STAFF. OAKLAND — Bear Rinehart didn’t have to bring it up at all, but the frontman and guitarist of South Carolina rock band Needtobreathe clearly had to get the venue switch for his band’s Wednesday concert…

Judah & The Lion performs at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View on Aug. 16, 2017. Alessio Neri/STAFF. Little by little, the personal and professional life of Judah & the Lion frontman Judah Akers is returning to a sense of normalcy. “I did a workout for the first time…

Judah & the Lion perform at The Fox Theater in Oakland on Oct. 19, 2019. Photos: Karen Goldman. OAKLAND — If tender bangers were a genre, Judah & the Lion would have that market cornered. Touring the band’s new album, Pep Talks, the Nashville trio known for blending Americana,…

Judah & the Lion. Courtesy photo. While Nashville rock band Judah & the Lion was experiencing its breakthrough success with 2017 album Folk Hop N’ Roll, frontman Judah Akers’ family was breaking apart at the seams. Until then, he had been able to keep a festering plague private from his…

Photos: Alessio Neri NAPA — Nashville’s Judah and the Lion wasn’t the first band to blend other influences with Americana and folk. Mumford and Sons have made their careers out of it; Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and the Avett Brothers spawned dozens of copycats. Yet no band…