Lexington-based soul, funk and R&B group finally have another NYE homecoming show

As 2021 comes in for a landing this weekend, the members of Joslyn and the Sweet Compression are thankful.

Granted, the year hasn’t been a day at the beach. COVID-19 still dictates much of what the popular Lexington-based soul, funk and R&B troupe can (and chooses) to do. As such, there have quirks and obstacles to contend that have made the past 12 months far from a path to normalcy. So why be thankful? Well, for starters, 2021 wasn’t 2020, when the pandemic shut down the better part of the touring year for all live music acts.

“There are a number of new protocols in place everywhere between masks and venues wanting vaccinations and tests,” guitarist Marty Charters said. “There have been new hurdles along the way. I carry around photos of eight vaccination cards with me. That’s a standard thing now. You arrive at the venue. Somebody comes up and wants to see those pictures right away, so there are some new elements to it. But we’ve been pretty active, so that’s been cool. We know everybody wants gigs and we’ve gotten a lot of them.

“Given the post-but-not-really-post COVID climate and the fact that everyone is trying to get reinvolved, we feel very fortunate to have booked 45 gigs in 14 states this year.”

New Year’s Eve show at The Burl

One of those shows brings Joslyn and the Sweet Compression back home this weekend for a New Year’s Eve concert at The Burl. While it might seem that singer Joslyn Hampton (Charters’ stepdaughter) and company are still performance regulars on the local live music club circuit, as they were when the band began over five years ago, this New Year’s Eve will only be its second local gig of 2021 (the other was a May date, also at The Burl). So there will be a bit of a homecoming vibe to go along with the New Year’s celebration this weekend.

“Home is my favorite place to perform,” Hampton said. “The crowds always show up and they always show love. It’s just a little different. Don’t get me wrong. Everywhere else they also show an immense amount of love, especially those who are new to us. But there’s something about home and seeing those people in the audience singing those songs back to you… it’s just a different kind of love. So, I’m going to enjoy coming home and singing at The Burl.”

“We’re also down to only playing Lexington a couple times a year,” Charters added. “2020 didn’t count, although we did play one outdoor show at The Burl that year. I believe in 2019, we did not play Lexington more than three times. So you have to go back more than three years to find when we were playing Lexington frequently. But that also makes it sweet. When you play here so infrequently, you really savor it.”

New Year’s Eve holds a certain sentimentalism for the band, as well. A Dec. 31 booking at The Burl in 2016 was one of the first big performance breaks for Joslyn and the Sweet Compression. They would play a New Year’s Eve show again at The Burl in 2018.

“That 2016 show was one of our first really important gigs,” Charters said. “We got the New Year’s gig pretty quickly after forming. We did it one year, then we were also part of the bill another year. It’s been three years since we’ve played New Year’s in Lexington. So yeah, we’re pretty pumped about it.”

Joslyn and the Sweet Compression tour, new album

So what does 2021, a year that places the world between two very active variants of the coronavirus, hold for Joslyn and the Sweet Compression? For one, a lot more road work. The winter, usually a slow time for the band in terms of live performances, will present a more active touring schedule that will include swings through the South and Midwest as well as a debut in venues throughout the Northeast.

“It’s going to stretch from Boston to New Orleans and from Grand Rapids to Boca Raton,” Charters said.

There is also new music in the offing that has been kept under wraps throughout the pandemic. A second full-length album has been parked in purgatory after a potential record contract fizzled. New prospects for a label are again being pursued, but Charters said that if a new home can’t be found for the record by the spring, the band will release it themselves as an independent project.

“It’s been killing us,” he said. “We’ve had it done for a long time. Joslyn is dying to get it out there. We all are. We had a very, very enthusiastic label with the actual owner of the label spearheading it. There was a contract in its third revision stage. Then COVID hit and over the period of a couple of months, everything just deteriorated. It’s been very frustrating. Now we’re back on a label pitch and we’ll see how it goes, but there is going to be a new album soon out one way or another.”

Does the band have a few musical tricks up its collective sleeve for the recording or will it be a further exploration of the funk and soul grooves that has defined Joslyn and the Sweet Compression over the past five-plus years?

“We’re still doing our funk, soul and R&B thing,” Hampton said.

Maintaining the band’s proven sound is something of a privilege for the singer, especially since COVID created such significant barriers over the past two years in getting that sound out to audiences.

“I think we all have a better appreciation for what we do,” she said. “It’s the same for life in general, but especially true when you’re able to do what you love. You definitely develop more of an appreciation for it. After you’ve been put in that kind of situation everyone has been in, it makes you appreciate life, period. To be able to do what you love in this life just shines a light on that. It’s like, ‘Wow. I do really get to do this.’”

Joslyn and the Sweet Compression

With Kiana and the Sun Kings and The Fanged Robot

When: Dec. 31; Showtime is 9 p.m. Doors open at 8 p.m.

Where: The Burl, 375 Thompson Rd.

Tickets: $25 at theburlky.com