Bumblefoot—born Ron Thal 56 years ago—might have been only six years old when Rainbow launched in 1975 but recalls, “I heard the Rainbow Rising album as a kid and became a lifelong Rainbow fan! It’s a great honor to play on this song and to pay tribute to this historic band.” The song in question is “Long Live Rock’n’Roll,” Rainbow’s longtime battle cry (and can be heard here).

The Camden County Board of Commissioners has announced the return of free “Summer Parks Concert Series 2026” on 2,700 acres of parklands.

It’s called Jersey Town and it’s a doozy. Singer-Songwriter-Guitarist-Producer-bigtime blues man Peter Karp, born in Bergen County 66 years ago, has carved out one epic career for himself.

Just days prior to the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music moving into its new home on June 7, it will celebrate America’s 250^th birthday with an all-star assemblage of talent on one stage June 4 and 5. “Music America: The Songs that Shaped Us,” at the OceanFirst Bank Center on the Monmouth University campus, will feature Jon Bon Jovi, Jackson Browne, Rosanne Cash, Kenny Chesny, Gary Clark Jr., Dion, Dropkick Murphys, Shemekia Copeland, Valerie June, Keb Mo, Nils Lofgren, Darlene Love, David Sancious, Bruce Springsteen, Tony Trischka & Sister Sadie, Mavis Staples, Trombone Shorty and the New Breed Brass Band, Stevie Van Zandt, Public Enemy and Jimmy Vaughan with The Disciples of Soul as the House Band.

New Jersey Hall of Famer Celia Cruz (Class of 2023) will be inducted into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame Class as a 2026 “Musical Influence” this November. As it says on the Rock Hall’s website, “One of the best-selling Latin artists of all-time, Celia Cruz’s powerful music was the sound of freedom…shaping and popularizing the Afro-Cuban genre.” She directly influenced artists like Sheila E, Gloria Estefan and Jennifer Lopez.

Princeton Professor Joyce Carol Oates will discuss her new book, Double Trouble, in The Guild Room within First Congregational Church in Montclair on May 2 at 1:45 p.m. as part of the Montclair Literary Festival going on from May 2 to May 11.

The NJ HOF has announced its 60 nominees for the public to vote on in the following six categories:  Arts & Letters, Education, Research, Engineering & Science, Enterprise, Performing Arts & Entertainment, Public Service and Sports.

Dana Owens was born in Newark 56 years ago. Now, as Queen Latifah, she will be inducted into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame in the “Musical Influence” category. Her career has been epic. She’s a producer, record label president, author, singer, rapper, actor, poet, drummer, guitarist and the recipient of more awards (including Grammys and Golden Globes) than she can possibly display on her walls.

Guitarist-Composer Stephane Wrembel is readying his “Django a Go Go” Music Festival and Guitar Camp for May 12-16 with two New Jersey shows and two New York City shows in celebration of his Django New Orleans II: Hors Serie vinyl release and the United States debut of Gypsy Guitars II, the follow-up, 26 years later, of 1989’s Gypsy Guitars, by The Gypsy Guitar Trio (Angelo DeBarre, Serge Camps, Frank Anastasio).

Hoboken diva Lisa Fischer always steals the show. She’s been the go-to back-up singer on tours by Sting, Luther Vandross, Tina Turner, Nine Inch Nails and the Rolling Stones. (She stayed with the Stones from 1989 to 2015.) Now she steals it right out from under the sax man Javon Jackson on his new Jackson Plays Dylan album when she sings “Gotta Serve Somebody” like nobody has ever sung it before (hint:  she’s got a little Mavis Staples in her for this one!)

1776 premiered on Broadway in 1969, won three Tony Awards, and was made into a 1972 movie. It’s currently enjoying a renaissance in Millburn.

“The Golden Door,” by Jim Metzner, came out last week. It’s a heartbreakingly profound tale of immigration and the promise America holds for the “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”

Monmouth University’s Pollak Theatre in West Long Branch will be the site when the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music presents “America 250: A Jersey Shore Celebration of the Nation’s Music Heritage” with Williams Honor, original E Streeter Vini Lopez, Pat Roddy, Jackson Pines, Pat Guadagno, Richie Blackwell and others on May 29. It is the first of a series of events leading up to the June 7 Grand Opening of the Center’s new building.

Jim Fusilli’s A Song For Katy Shayne novel came out last year. The author, born in Hoboken 72 years ago, wrote about a music critic who gets involved in the possible murder of a singer. Now Kirk Pasich’s Blue Elan Records has released The Lost Songs Of Katy Shayne by Suzanna Spring & The Black Canyon City Band, as produced by Pasich and Colin Devlin.

Singer-Songwriter Helen O’Shea’s tribute to Sinead O’Connor [1966-2023] and Dolores O’Riodan [1971-2018] of The Cranberries, Songs In The Key Of O, comes out May 1.

The Morris Museum in Morristown will, for the seventh year in a row, present its popular outdoor “Back Deck” concert series. Bring lawn chairs, have a picnic, enjoy the sunset! If it rains, the concert will be moved indoors. Tickets go on sale April 21. Shows begin at 7:30 p.m.

International Jazz Day isn’t until April 30 but within the New Jersey Performing Arts Center downtown Newark—at the intimate Victoria Theater—a free April 26 Sunday afternoon jazz concert at 4:00 p.m. will feature over 100 young musicians from the NJPAC TD Jazz for Teens Moody Jazz Orchestra, George Wein’s Scholars Ensemble, Montclair’s Jazz House Kids, Riverdale Country School (Bronx, NY) and Pennsylvania’s Valley Jazz Orchestra.

When Montclair singer-songwriter Jason Didner saw Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, he was fascinated enough by Bruce’s composite love interest in the film Faye Romano to write “Dear Faye,” a song about “love and regret,” according to Didner, who goes on to say, “Bruce is known for songs written to imaginary women who represent periods in his life.”

Montclair’s Lily Vakili, on the heels of her Oceans Of Kansas album, will release the six-track Live Wire EP on May 8. The first single, “Anybody Knows,” is out now.

America’s largest goth-industrial convention—Dark Force—will return to the Parsippany Sheraton May 1, 2 and 3.  Night #1 stars Combichrist, the Atlanta band led by Norwegian vocalist Andy LaPlegua for the last 23 years.