Haledon (Passaic County) trio Speed The Plough (STP) have teamed up with Anna Clemente—a professor of harpsichord at a music conservatory in Florence, Italy—for ‘A Saint, Restored,’ an album to be released tomorrow through Bandcamp and streaming platforms. STP—who have performed and recorded with The Feelies, also of Haledon—are decidedly in an Art-Folk bag. The story on how this Jersey band found this professor from Florence is one for the ages.

She struts her considerable stuff fronting Montclair’s Vakili Band but singer-songwriter Lily Vakili is stepping away from the nest to do a solo tour opening for another lead singer going solo: Scotland’s John Douglas of Trashcan Sinatras.

She mixed her metaphors on painfully honest material that almost hurt to listen to. From her 1970 debut—when she was 45—to 1976 (when her final album, ‘We’re Children Of Coincidence and Harpo Marx,’ was released to little or no fanfare), Dory Previn was right up there with fellow confessional songstresses like Carol King, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon. So why don’t people remember her?

Queen Latifah was still Dana Elaine Owens when we first saw her dancing on an early Naughty By Nature video. Now an internationally known superstar at 54, the Newark product, raised in East Orange, after being an actress, film producer, talk show host and singer-songwriter, has returned to the roots she once layed down with her pioneering ‘All Hail The Queen’ debut in 1989 when she was still a teenager. It’s called “King King.”

The Stevie Van Zant documentary, ‘Disciple,’ debuted on MAX June 22 after having its world premiere at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival. Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Eddie Vedder, Bono, Maureen Van Zant and Darlene Love are all in it as are clips from ‘The Sopranos’ where Van Zandt plays Silvio Dante.

Zakk Wylde is a busy man. Besides being in Pantera, he’s part of the annual trip called “Experience Hendrix” with fellow guitarists Hunter Hayes. Kingfish Ingram, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Samantha Fish, Taj Mahal, Eric Johnson, Dweezil Zappa, Mato Nanji, Calvin Cooke/Chuck Campbell of the Slide Brothers, Ally Venable, Ayron Jones, Artur Menezes, Mathias Lattin and Stanley Jordan. After adding October 11 in Texas and October 12 in Oklahoma to his Jimi duties, fans will now thrill to his Guitar Hero antics on 22 of the 24 Hendrix shows.

Pairing with their Slumberland Records label-mates Jeanines in certain cities, Asbury Park band Lightheaded has hit the open road for what they’re calling the “Slumbertour.”

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark has announced its fall season of classical concerts. Located at One Center Street, with ticket prices no higher than $49 to $149, the sound is exquisite, the venue gorgeous and the parking is ample.

Stone Temple Pilots—with founding members Dean DeLeo on guitar and his brother Robert DeLeo on bass—will hit the road with bands Live, Soul Asylum and Our Lady Peace. STP might have formed in California but the DeLeo Brothers graduated Point Pleasant High School in Ocean County. The tour starts August 16 in Cali and runs through September 15 in Indianapolis. On September 6, they will perform right off the Garden State Parkway at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel.

Popular metal DJ Eddie Trunk will host the annual Rocklahoma event this year in Pryor Oklahoma starting August 29 for four straight days with Evanescence, Avenged Sevenfold, Coal Chamber, Vixen, Enuff Z’Nuff, Disturbed, Clutch, Lamb Of God, Slipknot, Mastodon, Kerry King, Winger and many more.

Fozzy will hit the road in October for its 25th Anniversary Tour. The band—front man Chris Jericho, Guitarists Rich Ward and Billy Grey, drummer Grant Brooks and bassist PJ Farley—will open in Woodstock Georgia Oct. 3 and close the first leg of the tour in Cleveland Oct. 21. In-between will be stops in Florida, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and Michigan.

The first private by-invite-only screening of The Jersey Sound documentary is tonight in Asbury Park! Our thank-you to those who graciously sat before our cameras but did not make the final cut. Be it known, this movie is a pilot film for more to come. We’re just gettin’ started!

Quiet Riot, Lita Ford, Dio Disciples, Jason Charles Miller, Billy McNicol, X-COMM and Eddie Trunk’s All-Star Band performed at the 2024 “Rock For Ronnie: Year Of The Dragon Concert Celebration” May 19 at the Lou Bredlow Pavilion at Warner Center Park in Woodland Hills California. The event raised over $80,000. SiriusXM 103 “Faction Talk” radio host Eddie Trunk again hosted the afternoon.

Circle September 14! The Morristown Green—a three-acre historical park located right smack dab in the center of town that used to be the site of public executions—will host headliner British blues-busting guitarist-vocalist Joanne Shaw Taylor, 39, (discovered by Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics when she was 16) at 8:00. Before that, you can thrill to Louis Prima, Jr. & The Witnesses at 6:00 doing the songs of his legendary father (hope he does “Angelina, The Waitress At The Pizzeria”).

Fitting that we post Bobby Mahoney today on the first day of summer as the band’s new Wicked Cool Records record—’Another Deadbeat Summer’—should revitalize interest in this longtime Asbury Park attraction. The title tune’s video can be seen below. Dig that sax break! For the uninitiated, Bobby Mohoney is a band. It’s also the name of its lead singer.

Deep in the bowels of Hunterdon County, in a sleepy little hamlet called Clinton, resides the band known as Fear Of Falling. Indie alt-rockers to the max, the boys in the band—Steve, Bruce, Rob and Kimon—have locked themselves in a studio for the last 18 months and stand poised to show their five-song EP to the world. ‘Speak Low’ (Quark Records) is their first such project since 1996’s ‘Live.’

‘Skid Row—Live In London’ was recorded on October 24, 2022. That concert will mark the first live album/concert film from these Toms River, Ocean County, headbangers. So far, all we have is one song—“Slave To The Grind”—that you can see below. The complete package won’t be out until September 20, according to the band’s earMUSIC label.

“Horizon Sounds of the City” is returning for another season of FREE shows in Newark’s Chambers Park on the NJPAC grounds and this year, the lineup is energetic and filled with percolating percussion. Each night should be a funkin’ good time with emphasis on World Music. Shows begin at 6:00 p.m.

For the fifth year in a row, The Morris Museum—Six Normandy Heights Road, Morristown—will host outdoor concerts—“Jazz On The Back Deck” and “Lots Of Strings Music Festival”—starting tomorrow through September.

Maplewood drummer-composer-educator Scott Kettner is all over the map. Literally. He may be from Essex County but within the quasi-brilliance of his Nation Beat band, and their new album ‘Archaic Humans,’ the ear gravitates towards both Louisiana and Brazil. He’ll be celebrating its release at a Joe’s Pub party June 15 in New York City.