Mike Greenblatt:

By all accounts it was an afternoon to remember. When my longtime mentor Carol Ross married pop legend Tommy James on April 5 in Cedar Grove at the beautiful il Tulipano on Pompton Avenue in Cedar Grove, Essex County, the stars aligned. The music was rockin’, the food by Chef Mario Dileo was absolutely delicious, the bride was beautiful and the groom was magnanimous. And when Ricky Byrd leaped onstage with a guitar to jam with the band and provide a Major League shred to “Brown Sugar,” for just a small amount of time, all was right with the world.

Singer-Songwriter Kate Taylor did a great version of Tommy’s 1969 “Crystal Blue Persuasion,” his classic composition that everyone from Latin Legend Tito Puente to reggae’s The Heptones to alt-rock’s Concrete Blonde have covered. Her version was SO sweet. I remember buying her Sister Kate album in 1971 (one of her three brothers is James Taylor). I asked actor Al Sapienza who whacked his Sopranos Mikey character and he reminded me it was Paulie and Christopher as ordered by Tony. I also asked actor Debra Rennard—who starred on Dallas from ’81 to ’91—who shot JR? (She was JR’s secretary on the show.) “Wasn’t it you?” She laughed, said it wasn’t her, and corrected me. It was actor Mary Crosby who played Kristin, JR’s sister-in-law. Gene Cornish of The Rascals was there, as was composer-producer-musician Kenny Laguna (whose work with Joan Jett made her a star).    

Ricky Byrd graces our “Up Close” section this month. If you watched this year’s Grammys, you wouldn’t think there was any rock’n’roll left on the planet but let me be the first to tell you:  when the smoke clears on 2025, Byrd’s NYC Made album should stand tall on many a Top 10 list. He’s also a huge Yankee fan. He got Bernie Williams to sign my Bernie Ball. He took me to Yankee Stadium with Bad Company drummer Simon Kirke and I won’t soon forget explaining the intricacies of the game to this Brit who had never experienced baseball in-person.

Enjoy this issue. We have four new videos for our “Visual Sound,” 60 days of Jersey concerts in our “Calendar,” some hand-picked “Events” for a closer look at some of those shows, a new book about Dion from a New Jersey author, and we would like you to “Meet…” Isaiah J. Thompson, remember the “History” of Latin Legend Celia Cruz, and peruse our Hot 100 (100 songs by 100 Jersey artists.) Plus, don’t forget to make sure to see The Jersey Sound documentary!