4 years after their first try, St. Paul and The Broken Bones finally bring their stirring soul sound to Alaska

St. Paul and The Broken Bones were set to hit Alaska in fall 2020 with a pair of shows in Anchorage and Fairbanks.

But the plan to tour the far north was causing some discord in the household of Paul Janeway, the lead singer of the Alabama-based soul outfit. The shows were scheduled in mid-September 2020, just two weeks before Janeway’s daughter was to be born.

“It was a huge argument,” Janeway said. “My wife was like ‘Paul it’s too close. Marigold could be born before then. You can’t do these shows. You’ll be all the way in Alaska if something happens.’ And I was like ‘But we’ve never done Alaska. This is great. It could be the last opportunity.’ ”

The squabble quickly became moot, as the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out live performances for much of the world in 2020.

“It was one of the most useless arguments ever,” Janeway joked.

Four years later, the energetic, eight-piece band is finally making that trip.

St. Paul and The Broken Bones kick off the Anchorage Concert Association’s 2024-25 season with a 7:30 p.m. show at Atwood Concert Hall. Tickets start at $44.

The band is known for its blazing live performances, a spirit it captured in its debut album, “Half the City,” released a decade ago. The record garnered critical acclaim and commercial success, leading to numerous television appearances, a memorable NPR Tiny Desk concert and even a spot opening for The Rolling Stones.

While the release introduced the band to a massive audience and contained a number of its greatest hits, Janeway said as the group progressed, they wanted to focus on the future. But with time came appreciation for the record and its impact.

“Any time you make music and you make something that was so big — for us it was gigantic — you kind of want to pull away from that,” he said. “But it’s been kind of fun going back and as we’ve played those songs we understand how it affected fans. And you just get perspective on it you didn’t have.”

The band’s most recent album, “Angels in Science Fiction,” released last year, was written in 2020 and inspired by the birth of Janeway’s daughter. Janeway wrote a series of letters to Marigold before her birth and those eventually became lyrics for songs in the album, which is much more personal and muted than previous releases by the group.

“(The album) feels like a side mission record a bit because of what I was going through about to become a father,” Janeway said. “It was very introspective. Having four-year separation from recording it, I don’t think it’s a it’s reflective of where the band is headed. It was a side mission record that had to be artistically done.”

The band is currently writing songs for an album Janeway expects to be released in 2025. In many ways, he said, the upcoming album will revert back to earlier work, with the vocal intensity and musical urgency that has become the group’s trademark.

“What is the next step?” Janeway said. “It’s been almost back to basics. We’re not the same band we were 10 years ago but it’s interesting to going back to sitting in a room and playing.”