West Long Branch singer-songwriter-author Francesca Fuentes will be performing and partnering with HIP Video Promo on its 25^th anniversary to spread some good holiday cheer this Sunday, Nov. 16, at a free 2:00 afternoon food drive in Milltown at Revilla Grooves & Gear on North Main Street. Fans are encouraged to bring non-perishable food donations to support local families in need. Jake Thistle and Sam Tunkel will also perform.

The ‘50s Beat Generation preceded ‘60s hippies. Poets Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, Newark’s Allen Ginsberg, Herbert Huncke, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gary Snyder and Gregory Corso are all dead now but they planted the seeds for what became the hippie generation.

After the literary successes of Patti Smith’s 2010 Just Kids, and her 2015 M Train, her brand new third memoir, Bread Of Angels, is enthralling readers with its personalized anecdotes about growing up on the Jersey side of the Pennsylvania border in Gloucester County’s Deptford Township. The first book keyed in on one of the loves of her life, photographer Robert Mapplethorpe [1946-1989]. This third book gets even more personal.

It’s been seven years since Morristown singer-songwriter Ali Auburn released new music. Her new single, “Win Or Lose,” is a beautiful heartfelt ode to finally finding the right person in life.

The Jersey Shore Jazz & Blues Foundation will present acclaimed Louisiana singer-songwriter-slide guitarist Chris Vincent back to New Jersey (he grew up in Bayonne) on Dec. 5 at The Chubby Pickle on Bay Avenue in Highlands. The following afternoon he will host a blues-guitar master-class at 2:00 at the Women’s Club of Red Bank on Broad Street.

Deep within Mercer County lies the sleepy hamlet of Hopewell Valley. It’s where alt-folksinger Gabe Parsons is from.  Despite his young age, the locale itself suffuses his sound with a world-weary sophistication. Long Road Traveler is the debut and it is eminently listenable, filled with a longing and yearning intimacy.

Femme Fatale was a band from New Mexico that hit it big in Los Angeles with its one and only self-titled studio album in 1988, opened for Cheap Trick all over the world in 1989 and broke up in 1990. Now they’re back again with Paramus guitarist-composer-producer Steve Brown who brought in New Brunswick guitarist Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal.

Ancestral (Whirlwind Records), by alto saxophonist-composer-producer-educator-author John O’Gallagher, brings together—for the first time—two giants of jazz drumming, both from Montclair in Essex County. Billy Hart, 84, and Andrew Cyrille, 85, recorded Ancestral with O’Gallagher and guitarist Ben Monder at Sound On Sound in Montclair. Its avant-garde leanings and spontaneous composition just might make it the jazz album of 2025.

Bon Jovi is offering complete three-course meals to all local federal workers affected by the government shutdown just for showing a valid fed ID. The two locations are 207 Monmouth Street in Red Bank and 1769 Hooper Avenue in Toms River.

Deep within Mercer County lies the sleepy hamlet of Hopewell Valley. It’s where alt-folksinger Gabe Parsons is from.  Despite his young age, the locale itself suffuses his sound with a world-weary sophistication. Long Road Traveler is the debut and it is eminently listenable, filled with a longing and yearning intimacy.

Convicted in 2023, the story of Pras and his ascent from aspiring Jersey rapper to multi-platinum recording artist and Grammy winner, then his descent into being a convicted felon, fascinated Hollywood icon Mark Wahlberg so much that it’s being made into a movie.

She plays drums, guitar, keyboards plus co-produces and sings her own songs in a multiplicity of sub-genres, be it punk-rock, indie-rock or instant classic-rock. Asbury Park’s Rachel Ana Dobken has finally released the Acceptance we’ve been writing about since 2023.

Let’s do it again! The first shows of the 2026 Bon Jovi World Tour have been announced and they start at Madison Square Garden July 7, 9, 12 and 14 to be followed by Edinburgh, England, at the Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium on August 28, Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland, on August 30 and London’s Wembley Stadium September 4.

By all accounts it was a heartfelt celebration when New Jersey Hall of Famer (Class of 2023) Tony Orlando honored Newark composer L. Russell Brown, 85, by giving him the NJHOF “Everyday Hero” award.

Born in Newark 50 years ago, the Grammy Award-winning “Love King of Soul & R’n’B,” Raheem DeVaughn, will give his “20 Lessons of Love” to the nation starting November 21 in New York City and ending January 31 in Georgia.

There’s no one like him. Guitarist-Composer-Vocalist-Musical Director Stephane Wrembel, from Maplewood in Essex County, has been single-handedly keeping alive the tradition that started in 1934 Paris when the three-fingered Belgian guitarist Django Reinhardt and French violinist Stephane Grappelli started the Quintette du Hot Club de France. Wrembel’s new album, Django New Orleans II, will be released November 14. But, before that, he will be leading his nonet into Dizzy’s Club within the Jazz at Lincoln Center campus in New York City from October 30 to November 2 in a rare four-night residency for two shows each night.

John is our favorite Beatle. Keith is our favorite Stone. Ray is our favorite Kink. And Deena Shoshkes is our favorite Cucumber.  Hoboken’s Cucumbers have been rocking since 1982. Now singer-songwriter-guitarist Deena has temporarily “gone solo” with the release of a three-song EP called This Is The Time. She wrote the three with a lyricist friend David Graham.

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark has announced who the five finalists are for the 2025 Sassy Awards. The 14^th Annual Sarah “Sassy” Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition will culminate November 23 as part of the James Moody Jazz Festival. (Vaughan and Moody were both from Newark.) Almost 200 singers from 27 countries vied for the honor.

Jeiris Cook used to sell mattresses. He used to manage a warehouse. He raised his three boys with his wife Jennifer. But in 2016, at the age of 37, in his Jefferson hometown in Morris County, he first taught himself how to play the guitar and started writing songs. Five years later, in 2021, his “Date Night” signaled his arrival. Next month, his “Unbreak My Heart” will be released and it reveals a fully-formed artist comfortable with his talent, and direct in his soulfulness.

Above The Moon—vocalist-guitarist Kate Griffin, bassist Kyle Griffin, guitarist Shawn Murphy and drummer John Gramuglia—have been writing, recording and performing their own original music since 2015. In celebration of its 10^th anniversary, the band is putting out 10 new songs on two EPs.