RETROSPECTIVE: LIVE FROM BROOKLYN – IT’S 2021!

The most significant development in Brooklyn this past year was the return of live, in-person performing. The annual Celebrate Brooklyn! music festival returned to Prospect Park in late July after having to go virtual in 2020. Among the many outstanding artists who performed on the newly renamed Lena Horne Bandshell were Ari Lennox, Buffy Sainte-Marie, The Roots, Trombone Shorty, Skip Marley, D-Nice and Brooklyn’s own San Fermin.

Brooklyn Roads caught up with San Fermin front man Ellis Ludwig-Leone, who told us how the borough has shaped his music and creativity, saying “it stirs the pot to be here,” and inspires “constant re-evaluation and stimulation of that part of myself.”

Among the other standouts we were on hand for was L.A.’s D-Nice, who brought to the live stage his Instagram sensation, Club Quarantine, complete with such guest stars as Common, Melba Moore, Estelle and Brooklynites KRS-One, Spike Lee, and Stephanie Mills, who proudly proclaimed, “I’m from Bed-Stuy, do or die!”

The sounds of Celebrate Brooklyn! were still echoing when the Brooklyn Americana Music Festival returned for a long, late-summer weekend of 40 at six venues across northwestern Brooklyn.

Among the fest’s many standout performers was Eleanor Buckland, who we caught at Dumbo Archway. She told us about her debut album, You Don’t Have to Know, and declared that, in her few short months living here, “Brooklyn has been fueling my own creativity.”

Other local artists we interviewed this year included Dyme-a-Duzin, who released two albums this year, Training and Ghetto Olympics 2; longtime Brooklynite Annie Keating, who praised “the unbelievably talented [Brooklyn-based] musicians” who contributed to her latest album, Bristol County Tides; Brooklyn35 Collective founding member Tough Dumplin, who described our borough as being “indisputably creative”; and “emo positive” singer-songwriter Megan Pulles, who just released a holiday EP, Christmas Nostalgia.

Greenpoint-based Emily Frembgen, who used the time spent in quarantine to create her new album, It’s Me or the Dog, told us that, “Living in Brooklyn has exposed me to so many awesome people and I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing, how I’m doing it, if I wasn’t here.”

Also this past year we were privileged to speak with Gary U.S. Bonds and Kate Taylor (James’ sister). Bonds told us about a new album he is working on (Baby Blue), and how, back in the day, his wife convinced to relocate to Brooklyn. “Best move I ever made in my life,” he said. Taylor, who Brooklyn Roads saw at Manhattan’s City Winery, said she would welcome the opportunity to perform in our borough. “I’m a huge fan of Brooklyn, the soulful heartbeat of New York. I’ll come to Brooklyn to sing any time.”