““A modern genre splicer that finds her roots in a panoply of "Global South Grooves" does a killer job of making a percussion driven sound stand front and center even as the future pushes it away from its roots. Drake brings a feminine energy to the tropics for a set that certainly has a mind of its own. Solid stuff for forward thinking ears.” -Midwest Record (2019)” - Midwest Record
“Dawn Drake & ZapOte Female forward Global Justice Groove “Dawn Drake and her band are at the beginnings of a fascinating journey to enthusiastically bridge chasms of cultural and gender disconnect that plagues so much of pop music’s body politic. To hear them is to imagine early period jam sessions between Laura Nyro and Carole King with Sly Stone and Sergio Mendes sitting in. Theirs is a playfully intense dynamic that needs to be seen more” ” - –Darrell McNeill, Director, Black Rock Coalition, Curator Brooklyn Academy of Music Cafe, NYC
““Once I got the LP in hand and on my table, it was readily apparent that Nightshade is the right music for the right time…The real secret salsa in the grooves of Nightshade is just how tight Drake and ZapOte are — no doubt the result from having played so many live gigs together over the years!” ” - Mike Mettler, Analog Planet