The Argentine-American indie guitarist-vocalist-composer-educator will strut his considerable stuff onstage down the shore when he presents his multi-culti blend of Latin, Rock, Blues, Folk and Worldbeat on August 19.

Guess who was announced as the headliner for the FREE Morristown Jazz and Blues Festival? The Kingfish! This bad-ass dude won a Grammy for his 2021 662 album. Born in Blues Country (Mississippi), his string of albums for the last seven years puts him in a league of his own. His 8:00 set follows The James Langton New York All Stars at noon, Richard Baratta’s Gotham City Latin-Jazz Septet at 2:00, LaBamba & The Hub Caps at 4:00 and Dylan Triplett at 6:00.

Jeb Patton will lead his trio to Teaneck on August 15.  The Pianist-Composer-Educator earned his stripes in the band of The Heath Brothers. Mentored by Sir Roland Hanna, the New Yorker, 51, is also an accomplished classical player which he oftentimes weaves into his jazz.

Nashville’s Cimarron 615—with members of Poco and The Burrito Brothers—will introduce songs from their Same Sky (Blue Elan Records) due August 15. Their camp wrote to say, “One minute you’re riding shotgun with country twang and harmony-soaked California rock, the next you’re knee-deep in bluegrass, Memphis soul, blues-rock, reggae grooves, and a Cajun-fueled zydeco stomp.”

As part of the Metcalf Park Tennis Courts “Celebration of Tennis, Culture, Music & Food” from 2:00 to 8:30, Blues People—vocalist/guitarist Kelton Cooper, bassist Mike Griot, keyboardist Ron Thompson and drummer Gene Lake—will perform at 7:00. The band is from Orange in Essex County, and took its name from the 1963 Amiri Baraka book.

Celebrity chef David Burke resides over this classic venue’s “Live In The Bernie @ The Red Horse” series located within Bernard’s Inn, once a secret prohibition hideaway, now a music and comedy venue with a great wine cellar and local harvest dinners. Glenn is Glenn Alexander, the lead guitarist with Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes. He’s something of a Renaissance Man as his musical heritage includes soul, folk, jazz-rock fusion, Americana, pop and rock’n’roll. Oria sings so beautifully while Glenn goes mostly acoustic but—truth be told—there’s no telling what Glenn will pull out of his bag of trick on his debut here. 

As part of the Metcalf Park Tennis Courts “Celebration of Tennis, Culture, Music & Food” from 2:00 to 8:30, Blues People—vocalist/guitarist Kelton Cooper, bassist Mike Griot, keyboardist Ron Thompson and drummer Gene Lake—will perform at 7:00. The band is from Orange in Essex County, and took its name from the 1963 Amiri Baraka book.

To see the legendary Herbie Hancock? Damn, man, that’s like seeing Mozart or Beethoven! Dude’s 86.  Won 14 Grammys. Miles Davis once said of him, “Herbie was the step after Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, and I haven’t heard anybody yet who has come after him.”

DJ Major Taylor and Cult Objects will also be on hand when Ted Leo & The Pharmacists celebrate their 27^th year of existence at Crossroads in Garwood on July 31. They’ll perform tracks from their six albums filled with punk, indie-rock, almost-classic-rock, folk-rock and even reggae.

How much you wanna bet Extreme blows headliner Motley Crue off the stage? They’ll play selections from Six, their imaginatively-named sixth album, with current single “Here’s To The Losers.” Guitarist Nuno Bettencourt, fresh off the Ozzy tribute where he performed Black Sabbath’s “Changes,” then was Musical Director for the MTV Video Music Awards, is more than ready to rock. Singer Gary Cherone says the new single is “as close to an anthem as we’ll get.”

The 1860 Sea Captain’s house known as the Lizzie Rose Music Room in the coastal environs of Tuckerton will once again host Bees Deluxe from Boston/England who will no doubt fill this hallowed hall with the sounds of Etta James, the Bobby “Blue” Bland Blues Band, Otis Rush, Jimi, ZZ Top and originals. Opening is Cape May’s own prog-fusionists Eclipse.

Sax man Jaleel Shaw has played with Dave Holland, the Mingus Big Band and Roy Haynes.  Bassist Matt Brewer is from the San Francisco Jazz Collective. Drummer Rodney Green has played with Christian McBride, Greg Osby, Joe Henderson, Tom Harrell, Eric Reed and Mulgrew Miller. Together, the three master musicians will make magic without any chords.

Country singer Mitchell Tenpenny’s “Speed of Light” tour hits the shore July 29. He’ll be performing songs from The 3^rd, his current album, as well as his #1s “Drunk Me,” “Truth About You” and “At The End Of The Bar.” (Dude has raised over half a mil for cancer research and alternative med treatments.) 

New York City’s Vrsty will bring their gumbo of alt-pop, hard rock and whiteboy soul to Dingbatz in Clifton July 28 where they will obviously bash out latest single “Grief Machine.” Singer Joey Tyler explains-- "I don't know what more there really is to say about this one. It's definitely the most personal and important song I've ever written. It started off as a song about my dog who passed and turned into me coming face-to-face with the fact that I never learned to grieve properly. During much of the loss I've experienced in my life, I would stonewall the entire thing... almost like it never happened. Writing this one sent me into a spiral — and still does whenever I listen to it. But I think this song came to me at a point in my life where I really needed it." No doubt they will also do “Face Down” and “ez2find.” Ded and Dropout Kings are also on the bill. 

Funny how a double-dose of estrogen could ruin a good blues band. Peter Green [1946-2020] helmed the British blues band Fleetwood Mac from ’67 to ’70. He wrote “Black Magic Woman” in 1968 that Santana popularized in 1970. Blues For Greeny is the only Peter Green tribute out there. Opening will be Cervantes & The Panchos.

Within this mammoth hotel lies Ovation Hall and that’s where California’s Dirty Heads and Nebraska’s 311 will rock (and do it again on July 23 in Holmdel at the PNC Bank Arts Center). DH fuses reggae, hip-hop, alt-rock and pop, collaborating in its 26-year existence with Slightly Stooped, Maroon 5 and Slash. They’ll obviously do “Seven Seas,” “One Of Those Days,” “Vacation” and “Rescue Me.”  

New York City alt-folk-pop singer-songwriter-producer-label head (MPress Records) Rachael Sage will open for Liz Longley at “The EmpowHER Concert” no doubt singing songs from her Canopy album. (She’ll have Goo Goo Doll violinist Kelly Halloran with her.) Sage is a multi-talented visual artist, former ballet dancer, and activist, whose music brings a message and a moral. The 7:00 concert caps off a full day of “music, conversation and connection” starting at 1:30. (Her upcoming Under My Canopy album will expand upon her themes later this year.)

They come out of Middlesex County fully formed, a tight machine of non-stop action fronted by one of our favorite new singers Isabella Pombio. Call ‘em alt-rock pop-punk. It’s a three-band bill so bring your earplugs as American Vanity and Faded 2 Gray will also bring the bombast. Cookman Avenue will positively rock on this night.

The song “Tobacco Road,” written and recorded by John D. Loudermilk in 1959, is the perfect name for a hard-driving blues-rock band. These Tennessee boys have perfected their craft enough to bring it to audiences nationwide and will stop at Wonder Bar in Asbury Park July 15. Inspired by John Fogerty and Susan Tedeschi, they’ll be performing selections from their All In Time EP.  

Former Eagle lead guitarist-singer-songwriter Don Felder will appear across the country with The Guess Who, stopping just off the Garden State Parkway in Holmdel for a July 5 show at PNC. The “Takin’ It Back Tour” started last month in Canada and will continue to August in Seattle. His album—The Vault:  50 Years of Music—is now out. “There’s nothing like playing these songs live for audiences who’ve carried them with them for generations,” he says. “Getting to share the stage with Burton [Cummings] and Randy [Bachman] every night is going to make this tour something really special.”

Connecticut hardcore heroes Hatebreed will headline the New Jersey Hardcore Festival—otherwise known as Hellfest—and play two of its most popular albums in their entirety—their 1997 Satisfaction is the Death of Desire debut and their last album, Weight of the False Self (2020). New York’s Glassjaw will co-headline. Other bands include Trustkill, Vision Of Disorder, First Blood, Old Wounds, Disembodied, Bayway, Bleeding Through and Twitching Tongues.  

“Monmouth NJ 250” will be held on the eve of Independence Day at the East Freehold Showgrounds with Little Steven, Jake Clemons, Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers, Gary “U.S.” Bonds, Low Cut Connie and The Weeklings.

Thank goodness for bassist Christian McBride for it is he and Melissa Walker who head up Jazz House Kids out of Montclair. They educate and mentor the next generation of jazz musicians, thus insuring that the genre itself is self-perpetuating. This special 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. show celebrates the graduation season and, as their promotion team says, “the future of jazz is in incredible hands.”

In 1988, not since Sly & The Family Stone in the ‘60s, did a band couple such driving funk with hard rock. Living Colour’s Vivid debut was the best metal of the year and one of the best debuts of all-time. They opened for the Stones and made five more albums before calling it a career as a band. To see a great electric lead guitarist in Vernon Reid go acoustic, and one of the most soulful vocalists in Corey Glover, will be a night to remember.  

North Carolina’s Harvey Street is pumped to provide the pop of its Insomnia EP down the shore as part of its “Down & Out Tour.” They call their sound “Disciplined Electricity” and this five-piece indie-rock machine has already been proving it night after night in 22 states of the Midwest, South and now Northeast.

Pianist Max Richter will lead the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (two violins, two violas and a cello) on his originals complete with electronics. He was recently nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe in the “Best Original Score” category for his work on the film Hamnet.

Joe Bonanno (pictured) and his Godsons of Soul will headline a “Jersey Stars Tribute” with a hefty cast including Michael Martocci’s Sinatra, Ava Bonanno’s Bruce, Victoria Taylor’s Whitney, Leon Trent’s Kool & The Gang, Sheri Lynn’s Blondie/Gloria Gaynor and Brianna Eve for one more dose of Whitney. Joe’s Soul band will chip in with some Bon Jovi, Southside Johnny, Four Seasons and more Bruce. It’s all for a good cause:  proceeds will benefit food banks in Monmouth and Ocean counties.

Guess who’s opening for The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra? Morris Arts is presenting “Giralda: A Evening of Pure Imagination.” First an art exhibition. Then classical guitarist George Attisano, guitar duo Lenin Pazmino and Carlos Chong, Blues People and the Orchestra. It runs from 3:00 in the afternoon to 7:30 at night. At 6:00, artist Serena Bocchino will put on a “live painting experience” as the Orchestra swells, she will paint.

Philly Alt-Rock/Alt-R’n’B trio Madska—singer Maddy Rose Weisman, guitarist Sean Bonney-Burrill and keyboardist Gabe Banford—hits the shore June 13 to perform its new “Medusa” song from its upcoming More Than Dramatic EP due September 18 on Cryptid Records. Greek mythology’s Medusa was a monster-woman with snakes on her head instead of hair. Madska’s “Medusa” is more a fem icon for those who feel disenfranchised. In other words, do not, under any circumstance, fuck with her, or she will turn you to stone.  

If you miss her in New York City at Nightclub 101 on June 10 or in Philly at Nikki Lopez on June 11, you can catch Jersey Girl Annabelle Chairlegs, now an Austin Texas favorite, back in her home state at Shawn’s Crazy Saloon in Bergen County.