Patti Smith—from Deptford Township in Gloucester County—will bring her “Words and Music” show to the McCarter Theater Center in Princeton on September 23.

New Jersey will be well represented this year at the most prestigious award show of them all, the 46th Annual Kennedy Center Honors held at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC on December 3, and televised before the end of the year. Dionne Warwick from East Orange and Queen Latifah from Newark join fellow honorees Billy Crystal, Barry Gibb and Renee Fleming.

Circle the dates. On September 16 and 17, the fifth annual Sea.Hear.Now Festival will take place on three stages in Asbury Park on the beach with The Killers, Foo Fighters, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, The Beach Boys, Living Color, Sheryl Crow, Greta Van Fleet, Weezer and Quincy Mumford amongst the performing artists.

The 2023 MTV Music Video Awards are returning to downtown Newark at the Prudential Center on September 12 and broadcast to 150 countries.

The Paper Mill Playhouse has announced its 2023 summer cabaret lineup, outside at its Brookside Cabaret, where Broadway regulars, Manhattan cabaret stars and veterans of Paper Mill Playhouse past productions go to do full sets.

Anyone who has frequented the bustling bar scene of the Jersey Show must’ve seen Mike Miz open for Southside Johnny, Jason Isbell, Lukas Nelson or a host of other headliners in and around Asbury Park. But it took leaving to find himself, once he saw Asbury in his rear-view window as he drove south.

‘A Thousand Pebbles’ (One Trick Dog Records), the second album by the Ben Rosenblum Nebula Project (fourth overall), with composer/producer Ben on piano and accordion, backed by an absolutely stunning lineup of surprising syncopation—with Croatian church bells, trumpet, flugelhorn, alto sax, tenor sax, bass clarinet, flute, alto flute, guitar, bass and drums—travels the world-music spectrum.

The jet-propelled energy of the 2:49 “Louanne” by Ricky Byrd is so infectious, you’ll be smitten like a kitten on a loving lap…and just have to hit repeat. Again and again. Power Pop at its finest with elements of Cheap Trick, ELO and Raspberries, Byrd’s got that ear-candy thing down.

He’s known as Diesel now, “The World’s Biggest DJ.” The 7’1 Newark-born Shaquille O’Neal, after his NBA Hall of Fame career, has focused on music. The rapper/producer has now announced the largest bass music fest in Texas history, 15 acts on two stages, September 16, on Panther Island in Fort Worth.

They were loud as hell. They were flashy, in-your-face and knew it. British guitarist Jeff Beck [1944-2023] came originally from The Yardbirds. New York drummer Carmine Appice, 76, and bassist Tim Bogert [1944-2021], who graduated Ridgefield High School in Bergen County, came out of Vanilla Fudge and Cactus. Now a new boxed set unleashes previously unreleased live performances.

Three nights a week. Every week of the summer. Outdoors. Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays will be filled with free music. The Wednesday series, besides listed acts, will have opening sets by bands from the Lakehouse Music Academy. The Thursday series, featuring the Asbury Park Concert Band, in its 78th season, will perform all summer at 7:00 in the Fifth Avenue Pavilion’s bandshell.

Joel Diamond has produced over 100 charting hits, 47 of which went gold or platinum. Now the mammoth penthouse space at 220 Central Park South he inhabited for 20 years is included in a new book by Wall Street Journal writer Katherine Clarke. ‘Billionaire’s Row’ (Random House) is about the block-long row of Manhattan buildings that is up amongst the most lavish and expensive real estate in America.

The ‘Honey’ won’t drip until September 8 but the follow-up to Vakili Band’s 2021 ‘Walking Sideways’ starts now with the release of the Montclair band’s title track.

The 18th Annual Newark LGBTQ—Lesbian Gay Bi Trans Queer—Pride Festival will take place next month at a variety of downtown locations. The music will be loud. The feeling will be proud.

The compilation album ‘Tell Everybody! 20th Century Juke Joint Blues’ won’t be released until August 11 but Easy Eye Sound has rush-released a hot number, “Daughter Of Zion,” by Glenn Schwartz, produced by Dan Auerbach, as a teaser.

In 2023, the plight of a fictional Jersey Girl won five Tony Awards. ‘Kimberly Akimbo’—set in Bergen County—is the odd story of a teenager in a dysfunctional New Jersey family with a rare genetic condition that causes her to age prematurely. So despite being 16, she looks 72.

The previously available only-on-cassette sounds of 2022’s ‘From Catnip To Coma’ and this year’s exquisitely chill ‘From Coma To Catharsis’ have been melded into one satisfying listen plus new track “New South Wales” and will be released August 4.

Patriarchs In Black—former Type O Negative drummer Johnny Kelly and founding Hades/Non-Fiction guitarist-composer Dan Lorenzo—have released their second Zep cover this year. “Immigrant Song” has the Paramus riff-master Lorenzo churning out that familiar riff.

Author Warren Zanes will be talking Springsteen’s ‘Nebraska’ and the book he wrote documenting its creation. The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music at Monmouth University will host the event at the Clinch Gallery in Asbury Park this Thursday June 15.

Continuing the recent spate of Steely Dan re-releases, July 28 is the date that Geffen/UMe will release ‘Pretzel Logic’ on vinyl again for the first time in 35 years.