Singer-Songwriter Brendan Brophy—from Neptune in Monmouth County—also plays guitar, bass and keyboards. His new album—Let The Spaceships Come—is a collection of his originals as arranged by drummer Bruce Stephen Foster (from Oceanport), drummer-producer Steve Puntolillo (from Freehold) and Brophy.

The lineup for the FREE 2025 Essex County Summer Music Concert Series has been announced. It includes three nights of fireworks, five concerts in Brookdale Park and 14 concerts in various locations. And it all starts tomorrow!

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark has announced the lineup of events for its 2025-2026 Season of Dance which will include World Premieres by the New Jersey Ballet, the “rebellious arts organism” known as Pilobolus and its “Other Worlds Collection,” the Newark debut of “Tango After Dark,” “The Jersey Nutcracker,” the State Ballet Theatre of Ukraine’s new production of “Sleeping Beauty,” the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, and the Fort Lee-based Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company,

Our favorite Hoboken chanteuse, Tammy Faye Starlite, will co-headline a concert June 25 at Bowery Electric in Manhattan benefitting Waggytail Rescue, the non-profit animal organization that rescues, rehabilitates and finds forever homes for our four-legged friends, both dogs and cats.

One of the seven never-before-heard Bruce albums coming in that big beautiful box we’ve been telling you about—Tracks II: The Lost Albums (Sony Music)—due June 27 is Twilight Hours, his homage to the Great American Songbook.

When Johnny Cash performed at San Quentin State Prison in 1958, it certainly changed at least one inmate’s life. In the audience for that performance was a 21-year old convict by the name of Merle Ronald Haggard. Seeing Cash sing had a profound effect upon Merle and inspired him to become a singer-songwriter as well. Upon release, he embarked on a music career and wound up being one of the great all-time voices in country music history.

The Jersey Shore Film Festival will be showcasing Lucky Jack, an independent documentary about a pizza delivery guy from the Newark projects, 30, a high school dropout, with two kids, who, above all odds, follows his dream and becomes a neurosurgical resident at a top New York City hospital. It will debut June 22 at Basie Center Cinemas in Red Bank.

“Chocolate Jesus,” the 1999 Tom Waits gem, has been given a new life by Eddie Skuller of Jersey City. We previously reported on how he turned the Chicago blues of Willie Dixon’s “Spoonful” into a reggae (3/25/25). He now has five Waits songs under his belt that he’s put together as part of his live show. Pianist

Last year, Sayreville singer-songwriter Rhonette Smith released her first single since 2020. “Exhale” was in honor of World Mental Health Day. (See our 10/10/24 news item). On her new single, “Bent,” which The Jersey Sound is proud to present as a World Premiere here now, she bites your head off.

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center at One Center Street in Newark has announced its shows for the preliminary fall season of jazz. Tickets went on sale last week for the following.

He came out of Toms River in Ocean County and has been in Nashville for years. Mark Mulch is but one of a growing list of artists who call their music Trop Rock. Now it’s a certifiable genre with its own radio stations, charts and audience. Like Americana, it’s an umbrella under which good vibes, strong melodies, sunny scenes and sand between your toes vie for optimum feelgood listening.

He came out of Toms River in Ocean County and has been in Nashville for years. Mark Mulch is but one of a growing list of artists who call their music Trop Rock. Now it’s a certifiable genre with its own radio stations, charts and audience. Like Americana, it’s an umbrella under which good vibes, strong melodies, sunny scenes and sand between your toes vie for optimum feelgood listening.

How did Brian Berkowitz from Belleville in Essex County turn into a true-blue piano-humping Chicago Bluesman named Johnny Iguana? Dude’s played piano on albums by Buddy Guy, Johnny Winter, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Derek Trucks and James Cotton (legends all) before signing to Delmark Records in 2020 for his acclaimed Johnny Iguana’s Chicago Spectacular debut which featured Billy Boy Arnold, John Primer and Little Ed. Now comes Johnny Iguana At Delmark: Chicago-Style Solo Piano.

June 27 can’t come fast enough. That’s the date seven complete never-before-heard Springsteen albums will be released in one big beautiful box, Tracks II. One of the albums, Inyo, is particularly fascinating as it contains his 1990s collaborations with a host of Mariachi Musicians.

It’s summer and the time is right for dancing in the streets. The town of Clifton will let you do exactly that FOR FREE starting Friday with Swingman and the Misfit Mutts. June 13 means The Retrocasters with sounds from the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s. On June 20, The Jersey Swamp Cats will enliven the proceedings with the kind of jump blues that will make you want to twist and shout.

It’s summer and the time is right for dancing in the streets. The town of Clifton will let you do exactly that FOR FREE starting Friday with Swingman and the Misfit Mutts. June 13 means The Retrocasters with sounds from the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s. On June 20, The Jersey Swamp Cats will enliven the proceedings with the kind of jump blues that will make you want to twist and shout.

Blues Traveler has traveled a long way since they started in the basement of their drummer’s house in Princeton 39 years ago. John Popper, Chandler Kinchia, Brendan Hill and Bobby Sheehan [1968-1999] were only jamming at the time. Little did they know their fun would take them around the world, playing over 2,000 concerts in front of over 30 million fans, record 14 albums, sell over 10 million and win a Grammy. 

She’s long left her Monmouth County roots for the dream of Nashville.  According to her camp, she has “big loud feelings,” most of which can be heard in her “I Wanna Feel Good” single which drops today.

On June 5, the Garden State Arts Foundation (GSAF) will present FOR FREE the recently-retired Tony Orlando (a longtime resident of Union City and Hasbrouk Heights). Orlando, after 64 years in show business, and a longtime advocate for the U.S. military, was coaxed out of retirement for this one show as a military tribute to our troops around the world. Now in its 41^st year, the GSAF will have Cousin Brucie present the Francis Albert Sinatra Tribute to the Performing Arts honor to Orlando.

The concept of the jazz “ghost band” refers to orchestras who continue to play long after the leader dies. Twelve years after Glenn Miller went missing during World War II, his orchestra revved back up.