Brooklyn Tales From Carolyne Mas

Carolyne Mas on Henry Street in Brooklyn / photo © 1981 by Howard B. Leibowitz / courtesy of Carolyne Mas

Carolyne Mas is one of the rock world’s best-kept secrets. She now lives in relative isolation off the grid in a remote corner of the Arizona desert. Her ascent up NYC’s steep music scene in the late 1970s found her climbing alongside the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Southside Johnny Lyon, Phoebe Snow, Robert Palmer, Sammy Hagar and comedian Jerry Seinfeld. She was also sharing stages with established legends such as Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee. Brooklyn Roads asked her to share a Brooklyn story or two from those days, and we in turn, share them with you here.  

“I was twenty-five when I first moved to Brooklyn during January of 1981. For many years I had been living in the West Village as a working musician, which in those days was a magnet for singer-songwriters in search of the elusive record deal. I had recently separated from my husband and my apartment was not rent controlled, so when I heard about a sublet in Brooklyn Heights from a friend, I jumped at the opportunity.

Carolyn Mas Performs at The Ritz in NYC/ photo © 1986 by Howard B. Leibowitz / courtesy of B.L.Howard Productions

“There was one musician that I knew of who lived in Cobble Hill, but for the majority of my friends moving to Brooklyn was on par with moving to another planet. We had often joked about getting a nose bleed if any of us had cause to venture above 14th Street. It wasn’t long, though, before they realized that Brooklyn was just a short cab ride away. I remember nights when a bunch of us would pile into a Checker cab on Bleecker Street, Brooklyn bound with drinks still in hand from Kenny’s Castaways after a gig. It was the perfect hub for a musician who wanted action with a modicum of privacy.

Carolyne Mas on Her Brooklyn Stoop / photo © 1981 by Howard B. Leibowitz / courtesy of Carolyne Mas

“My rent was $550 for the entire floor of a brownstone walk-up on Henry Street, which was a bargain compared to the rents in the West Village. To this day it is the only building I have ever lived in where I knew all of my neighbors, and it was not unusual for us to share meals or swap bottles of wine for grocery items when the stores were closed. At one point, I fell in love with the guy downstairs, which proved futile, but I did get a good song out of it.

“Later in life I would move to Gowanus right on the edge of Park Slope, then to the Midwood section by Avenue U, and then beyond, out into the world to experience the joys and sorrows of life as an adult; my youthful heyday in the Heights would never again be repeated at any location. “