Sharon Jones Breaks Out New Tunes in Brooklyn

Hometown funk-diva Sharon Jones kicked off a pre-New Year's Eve celebration on Wednesday night at Brooklyn Bowl by saying that while this was the first time she and her backing band the Dap-Kings had played New York's most popular (and only) venue-bowling alley, she probably wouldn't be hitting the lanes. "I'd throw my back out," she told the crowd about half way through. The sentiment was an interesting one, as Jones herself isn't exactly the most sedentary of performers.

From the moment she took the small stage, her usual prancing and dancing about was greeted warmly by the crowd; so much so, a different guy from the audience decided that they'd shake their questionable things up against Sharon as she performed her first five songs. While Jones is surely a sassy one, there wasn't a moment where she pushed anyone back onto the floor -- even the guy who bounced his shoulders up and down while keeping his hands in his pockets the whole time remained on stage for the duration of the a new, soulful sounding ballad called 'If I Give You My Love.'

Jones and the Dap-Kings are slated to release a new album sometime in the first half of 2010, and they gave the crowd a taste of things to come. Piggybacking off of the slow soul of 'If I Give You My Love,' was another dark sounding ballad called 'When You Love Me.' But mostly, Jones stuck with songs from her past few albums, including a fantastic '100 Days, 100 Nights/Let Them Knock' medley and the song from the movie 'Up Somewhere,' as she put it. She was referring to the group's performance of 'This Land Is Your Land,' which appears in the new George Clooney film, 'Up in the Air.'

Sharon Jones will ring in the New Year at Washington D.C.'s 9:30 Club and has a few sporadic January shows on the books, including shows in State College and Pittsburgh on January 22 and 23. And while it's probably safe to say that her new album is full of the funk, it sounds like she's not afraid to slow things down too. Anyone that's heard her do James Brown's 'It's a Man's Man's Man's World' can testify that she's perfectly adept at this.