Back on Our Radar: New Music From Old Favorites

January 13, 2021 by

“Should auld acquaintance be forgot?” Not at Brooklyn Roads. We’re starting 2021 by checking in with some local artists we have featured over the years and noting what they’ve been up in the last year or so.

Pauline Jean/ photo by Joey Rosado

Pauline Jean/ photo by Joey Rosado/ courtesy of the artist

Haitian American Brooklynite Pauline Jean, who we interviewed in October 2019, issued the single and video “Ain’t I a Woman (Singing Truth)” on August 6, 2020. The release date for the song –- an ode to African American abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth –marked the 55th anniversary of the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Jazz/hip-hop band Quarter Water released More Flavors, a follow-up EP to their 2018 debut release, Flavors. Standout tracks include “What’s the Word” and “Spotlights.” In December 2020, they contributed a track, “Feel the Same” to Songs of Solidarity, a benefit compilation for local hospitality workers still out of work due to COVID-19.

Shiny New Model- Bodega-album cover

Shiny New Model– Bodega-album cover

When we interviewed Bodega’s Ben Hozie back in 2019, they had just released their first album, Endless Scroll. They have since issue a follow-up EP, Shiny New Model.

Late in 2020, Mother Feather released a kick-ass new single and video, “You’re a Dead Man.” The glam/punk-rock band, fronted by Ann Courtney and Elizabeth Carena, wowed us with their show at the Knitting Factory in December 2018.

AMFM, the indie-rock art project of singer-songwriter David Caruso, launched two singles in 2020: “Waves” early in the year and “Wednesday” shortly before Christmas.

And as previously reported here, we also saw new albums last year from Nicole Atkins (Italian Ice), Adrian Daniel (Night Wolf), José James (No Beginning No End 2), Norah Jones (Pick Me Up Off the Floor) and Joan Osborne (Trouble and Strife).

Jon B: Are You Still Down? Book Cover Art

Jon B: Are You Still Down? Book Cover Art

Reading Matter

Dominique M. Carson, who has written stories for Brooklyn Roads about Norah Jones, Patti LaBelle, Ja Rule, Ashanti, the Isely Brothers and Tony Danza, among others, has a new book out. Titled Jon B: Are You Still Down? it chronicles the successes and struggles of groundbreaking ’90s blue-eyed soul icon Jon B, who has worked with Baby Face and Tupac Shakur and earned a Grammy nomination in 1995.