New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Shreveport, Louisiana's Seratones - fronted by the gospel-trained powerhouse frontwoman A.J. Haynes - will release their sophomore album POWER next month, and today they share an incredibly moving music video for the album's title track. The
Danielle Calodney-directed video highlights A.J.'s work as an equality and reproductive rights activist, as well as her work as a counselor at one of Louisiana's last abortion clinics, and is dedicated to the late Sadie Roberts-Joseph. Filmed throughout three important, women-founded locations in Shreveport - the Calanthean Temple, which was a
Black cultural hub during the Jim Crow-era; Hope Medical Group abortion clinic, where A.J. is a counselor; and The Confederate monument - "
Power" is Seratones' way of celebrating how far we have come, despite all the work there is left to do. Watch the video and read more about it below and via PAPER Magazine here.
More on "
Power" from A.J. Haynes: "I would like to dedicate this video to Sadie Roberts-Joseph. She understood that in the South, we live with the Spirits of our complicated history-but the Spirits are often muted, silenced, or talked over...as if an impenetrable barrier muffles our understanding. I hope this video offers a way for us to listen to those Spirits and honor her Power.
All three places in the video were founded by women.
The Confederate monument (founded by the Daughters of the Confederacy) has always been a chilling reminder of the lengths that people will go in order to control someone else's body. This violent lineage is even more evident in the wake of Sadie Roberts-Joseph's recent murder. She amplified the stories of
Black people in Louisiana, carved a sacred space for our living narrative. Although an unknown assailant took her life, they will never be able to take away her voice.
Hope Medical Group was founded seven short years after Roe v. Wade and has stood strong since. I've spent almost a decade there listening to women's stories and helping them navigate their paths to physical autonomy. My time spent there is integral to my identity as an artist.
The Calanthean Temple represents a celebration of autonomy, persistence, and innovation. How amazing that Cora M. Allen owned a thriving
Black cultural hub at the height of Jim Crow in a place nicknamed Bloody Caddo.
Danielle completely understood how to capture these places with an explorational and unconditionally human lens, a critical Love that hopes despite the burden of history. We cannot understand where we're going if we don't know where we've been. Also, who doesn't love a rooftop party? We have to celebrate our victories, too."
Seratones released their critically-acclaimed debut album in 2016, leading to a national television debut on CBS This Morning, an NPR
Music Tiny Deskconcert, as well as tours with the likes of Charles Bradley, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down,
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, and more. Now the band prepared to release POWER, their first new album in 3+ years, first featuring a new member line-up, first record withNew West and first record produced by Cage The Elephant's Bradley Shultz.On this record, Haynes showcases how vulnerability can be powerful, as her songs explore her years fighting for reproductive rights and serving as a counselor at one of Louisiana's last remaining abortion providers, her advocacy for racial equality, her struggles to adapt and overcome, her love of poetry, and much more.
One listen to Seratones' spectacular sophomore album and it's clear just how much of an evolution has taken place. Recorded in Nashville at
Battle Tapes, POWERfinds the Shreveport five-piece trading in the brash proto-punk and garage rock ferocity of their critically acclaimed debut for a timeless brand of gritty soul, one that takes its cues from vintage Motown and Stax even as it flirts with modern synthesizers and experimental arrangements. "With this album, I knew that I really wanted to draw from the pantheon of soul music," says Haynes. "Soul was what I danced to in the kitchen with my mother. It's what I'd come home at night and listen to on my record player. Things are really heightened and scary and overwhelming in this country right now, and returning to soul music was a way of reaching for comfort and security in all of that." Haynes' captivating voice, first honed at Brownsville Baptist Church in Louisiana, remains front and center here, but her delivery this time around is more measured and self-assured than ever before, a beacon of confidence and clarity amidst a sea of social and political turmoil.
Seratones is: A.J. Haynes (vocals/guitar),
Jesse Gabriel (drums), Adam Davis (bass),
Travis Stewart (guitar), and Tyran Coker (keyboard).
Tour dates
8/22 - Dallas, TX @ Three Links
8/23 - Austin, TX @ Stubb's Jr.
8/24 - El Paso, TX @ Lowbrow Palace
8/26 - Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar
8/27 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo
8/29 - San Francisco, CA @ Cafe Du Nord
8/31 - McMinnville, OR @ Walnut City
Music Festival
9/1 - Portland, OR @ Bunk Bar
9/3 - Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern
9/6 - Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry
9/7 - Chicago, IL @ The Empty Bottle
9/9 - Toronto, ON @ The
Drake Hotel
9/10 - Montreal, QC @ Quai Des Brumes
9/11 - North Adams, MA @ Hi Lo
9/12 - Allston, MA @ Great Scott
9/13 - Brooklyn, NY @ Baby's All Right
9/14 - Washington, D.C. @
Pearl Street Warehouse
9/15 - Carrboro, NC @ Cat's Cradle
9/18 - Nashville, TN @ The High Watt
9/19 - Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
9/20 - Birmingham, AL @ The Nick
9/21 - New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jack's
10/25-10/27 - New Orleans, LA @ Voodoo Festival
11/21 - London, UK @ The Camden Assembly
11/22 - Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Cinetol
11/23 - Hamburg, Germany @ Molotow Musikclub
11/25 - Berlin, Germany @ Maze
11/26 - Koln, Germany @ Helios 37
11/28 - Antwerpen - Merksem, Belgium @ Arenbergschouwburg
11/29 - Paris, France @ Le Pop-Up du Label
11/30 - Clermont-ferrand, France @ Cooperative De Mai
12/3 - Zurich, Switzerland @ Mascotte
12/5 - Madrid, Spain @ Wurlitzer Ballroom
12/6 - Valencia, Spain @ sala Loco Club
