Brooklyn Brewery’s ‘Brooklyn, Sweden’ song contest brings out ‘love-hate’ for G Train

August 2, 2012 By Natalie Rinn Brooklyn Daily Eagle
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Will song rival Ellington’s trademark ‘Take the A Train’?

When Ben Hudson, marketing director for Brooklyn Brewery, was planning sponsorship of a music festival in Sweden (where their hometown brews are “hugely popular”), he felt something might be missing.

“I guess I was looking for a musical link to Brooklyn as well, a Brooklyn based band or a song,” he said.

Hudson first decided that Brooklyn Brewery would sponsor a contest for an original song about McCarren Park, a significant part of Williamsburg’s history.

But a different idea came from Brooklyn Brewery marketing coordinator, Maia Raposo: “Let’s ask for songs about the G Train,” she said, and thus was born “Brooklyn, Sweden” Song Contest.

Now, with more than 40 entries of original songs, often accompanied by video, Brooklyn Brewery has “Nailed the G” with online voting that will choose a winner as of midnight Wednesday. As this story was posted on Wednesday at 6 p.m., leading in the votes was Brett Moses with a song called No Burning Headlight from his new band Teen Commandments. But for Moses and his bandmate Nick Lagrasta (who also doubles as his Williamsburg roommate), this contest was no lark.