New Haven Independent

The singer/ songwriter’s name is Allette Brooks. She used to tour country playing as many as 130 gigs a year at folk clubs and festivals. Then she called a halt. She moved to New Haven, earned a graduate degree in African studies. These days she teaches at Fresh Yoga on State Street.

Sunday night Brooks played her first full, double-set concert in years for an appreciative crowd of 30-some odd neighbors and friends invited to a cozy house concert on Lincoln Street, a block off Orange. It was a re-launch party of sorts. Brooks is returning to touring (on a more modest scale). This summer she plans to record a new CD with her new material.

The three-year hiatus — Brooks called it a “creative awakening” — took her songwriting in new directions. The material she debuted played Sunday night had a calmer, more spiritual feel to it than her busy older pieces, reflecting a period of stretching in new directions and pausing from the dizzying pace of touring.

In two of the best songs, some of the lyrics — or, in the case of the one at the top of this story, “Lofoka” (“Scent of Rain” in Setswana), all the lyrics — of the lyrics were in the language of Setswana. (The only reason I could identify, and spell, it: I happened to sit next to Ninani, the medical student from Botswana who tutors Brooks.)

The second piece includes, along with Setswana, bits of English, Czech, and Zulu — all combined to make a point about silence. Click on the play arrow below for a sampling.

On Lincoln Street Sunday, Brooks connected to the audience with a lively stage manner, personal stories, and a general sense of fun. Her one cover was a medley: “Sweet Home Alabama” mixed in with the Vegetable Song from Into The Woods. (She left out the part about telling Neil Young that “Southern Man don’t want him around anyhow.)

Brooks has a strong, melodic voice. My daughter compared Brooks’ guitar playing to Natalia Zukerman’s. In this number (click on the play arrow below) I heard echoes of Shawn Colvin.

Above all, the style was Allette Brooks — down to these homemade cupcakes she and a friend put on the table beside the chocolate-covered coffee beans.