Though Judah Akers was a baseball-playing Southern boy, Nate Zuercher a mountain-born music major and Brian Macdonald a pop-music lover from the Chicago streets, Judah & The Lions’ first jam session at Nashville’s Belmont University immediately pointed to a lasting musical friendship. “I think Nate and Brian had a preconceived judgment about me going in,” says Akers. “But, once we started to jam, it was just magical.” The band was just three months old, had never played live and was still without a budget when they tracked their first of two EPs, a rugged blend of “folk-hop” called First Fruits. Their first full-length record, Kids These Days, took a little more time. “We were advised to write 50 songs for the record,” says Akers. “Then we honed it down to 20 tunes for the sessions. We ended up writing five of the songs on the album while we were in the studio.” That sort of spontaneity is what informs the band’s egalitarian approach to their craft. “We like to let the music be music, to take inspiration in the moment,” Akers explains. “Or, as they say in Cool Runnings: ‘Feel the rhythm, feel the ride.’”