Born in Chapel Hill, N.C. in 1946, Loudon Wainwright III came to fame when “Dead Skunk” became a Top 20 hit in 1972. He had studied acting at Carnegie-Mellon University, but dropped out to partake in the Summer of Love in San Francisco, and wrote his first song in 1968 (“Edgar,” about a lobsterman in Rhode Island).
He was soon signed to Atlantic Records by Nesuhi Ertegun, and after that was lured by Clive Davis to Columbia Records, which released “Dead Skunk.” His songs have since been recorded by Bonnie Raitt, Johnny Cash, Earl Scruggs, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, his son Rufus Wainwright, and Mose Allison, among others. Wainwright has recorded 27 albums, including his 2009 Grammy Award-winning High Wide & Handsome.
Additionally, Wainwright has co-written with songwriter/producer Joe Henry on the music for Judd Apatow’s hit movie Knocked Up, written music for the British theatrical adaptation of the Carl Hiaasen novel Lucky You, and composed topical songs for NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered and ABC’s Nightline.
An accomplished actor, he has appeared in films directed by Martin Scorsese, Hal Ashby, Christopher Guest, Tim Burton, Cameron Crowe, and Judd Apatow. Wainwright has also starred on TV in M.A.S.H. and Undeclared, and on Broadway in Pump Boys and Dinettes. More recently, he appeared in the film Pleased to Meet You (with fellow music legends John Doe, Aimee Mann, and Joe Henry), and the television series, Mosaic, directed by Steven Soderbergh.
Mr. Wainwright has proved to be far and away the most candid diarist among the singer-songwriters who...brought confessional poetry into popular song.... Mr. Wainwright wrings more human truth out of his contradiction than any other songwriter of his generation
New York Times - Stephen Holden
Bio: Chris Barron is best known as the lead singer of the Grammy nominated, Rolling Stone cover, hit band Spin Doctors. He wrote the Billboard top tens, “Two Princes” and “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong”. Spin Doctors just released a new record in summer of 2023. Chris is also working on a solo record.
Chris Barron plays nifty chords on a vintage Gibson, getting songs across with a mastery that comes from a lifetime starting on street corners and journeying through the alleyways of stardom to the largest stages is in the world. His solo acoustic interpretations of Spin Doctors hits combine with a diversity of songwriting, accomplished guitar playing, and quirky solo material to make a compelling show full of storytelling and raw musical power that is compelling, poignant, extremely amusing, and utterly satisfying.
“Chris Barron is the best songwriter of his generation. Think Robert Johnson meets Paul Simon with the epic lyric sensibility of Bob Dylan.” -Charles Kirby
“Chris Barron is such a good guitar player it makes me angry.” -Blake Morgan
J2B2 (John Jorgenson Bluegrass Band) features four legendary musicians: John Jorgenson on guitar, mandolin, and vocals; Herb Pedersen on banjo, guitar and vocals, Patrick Sauber on guitar and vocals; and Mark Fain on bass. Impeccable musicianship, incomparable songwriting, and seasoned showmanship.
Part bluegrass and part 70's singer-songwriter vocal harmonies, the diverse material performed by these four legendary musicians is American Roots Music at it’s very finest. Traditional bluegrass standards fit seamlessly next to contemporary songs like the Pedersen-penned classic "Wait a Minute" and CMA Song of the year, "Whiskey Lullaby.”
With several appearances on the Grand Ole Opry, J2B2 continue to delight audiences across the country with performances at prestigious festivals such as the RockyGrass Festival in Lyons, CO Strawberry Music Festival in Tuloumne, CA to Americanafest in Nashville, TN.
In a career that took flight in 1985 with commercial and critical acclaim, guitar virtuoso Stanley Jordan has consistently displayed a chameleonic musical persona of openness, imagination, versatility and maverick daring. Be it bold reinventions of classical masterpieces or soulful explorations through pop-rock hits, to blazing straight ahead jazz forays and ultramodern improvisational works-solo or with a group-Jordan can always be counted on to take listeners on breathless journeys into the unexpected.
Key to Jordan's fast-track acclaim was his mastery of a special technique on the guitar's fretboard. Instead of conventional strumming and picking, Jordan's innovative "touch technique" is an advanced form of two-handed tapping. While a handful of other players were using similar techniques, Stanley's fluid, multi-layered textures and sheer virtuosity raised the bar for excellence. But his technique, though impressive, is always a means to a musical end. His music is imbued with a warmth and sensitivity that has captured the imagination of listeners worldwide. A classically trained pianist before playing guitar, Jordan wanted greater freedom in voicing chords on his guitar, so he applied piano principles to do so. Jordan's touch technique allows the guitarist to play melody and chords simultaneously with an unprecedented level of independence. It also allows Jordan to play simultaneously on two different guitars, or even on guitar and piano. He says that "I think of it as a single instrument, but one with a wide range of tonal colors-that's why I do it."
To date Jordan has performed in over 60 countries on 6 continents. He has performed at many festivals, including the Kool Jazz Festival, the Concord Jazz Festival, and the Montreaux International Jazz Festival. During the 1980s he collaborated with a diverse array of artists, including performances with Art Blakey and Richie Cole and recordings with Stanley Clarke and Kenny Rogers. The track with Rogers, "Morning Desire", became America's #1 country song in 1986. Later Jordan became a frequent guest with Les Paul during Paul's legendary Monday nights at Iridium in New York. Today Jordan performs frequently as a soloist and with his band, as well as collaborating with other guitarists such as Kevin Eubanks, Sharon Isbin and Muriel Anderson. He's also a frequent guest with jam bands such as the Dave Matthews Band, the String Cheese Incident, Phil Lesh, Moe and Umphrey's McGee.
Jordan has received four Grammy nominations. His most recent album "Friends" was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. Los Angeles Times jazz critic Leonard Feather wrote, "Genius is a word often tossed around in musical circles, but it has been rightfully applied to Stanley Jordan.
Ari Hest is a Grammy nominated singer/songwriter who began his career as an independent artist in 2001. He built a loyal following touring the college circuit extensively between 2000 and 2003, after which he released two albums on Columbia Records, Someone To Tell (2004) and The Break-In (2007) all the while touring with artists such as Martin Sexton, Suzanne Vega, and Ani Difranco.
From 2010-2016, he continued to tour relentlessly and released four other LP's: Sunset Over Hope Street (2011), The Fire Plays (2012), Shouts And Whispers (2015), and the Grammy nominated Silver Skies Blue (2017), a duets album with Judy Collins. He released two albums of Patreon subscriber favorites in the spring of 2024 entitled The Treehouse Project - Year One and Year Two respectively.
Many of Ari's songs have appeared on TV and film - The Path, The Lincoln Lawyer, Private Practice, Army Wives, and One Tree Hill to name a few.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jesse Terry's work is rooted in rhythmic rock & roll and sharp songwriting. His 2024 release Arcadia marks a turning point in his career. It's the seventh original album from an award-winning musician who's spent much of the past decade on the move, playing 150 shows annually, including bucket list events such as Bonnaroo, Philadelphia Folk Festival and AmericanaFest.
Arcadia captures both sides of his musical personality, finding room for rock anthems one moment and intimate moments the next, showcasing just how wide Terry's reach can be.
A grand-prize winner of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, Terry established himself as a top-shelf songwriter and storyteller even before he built his audience as a solo artist.
Raves from the likes of No Depression ("instant accessibility…brilliance and clarity") and Pollstar ("it’s easy to imagine hearing his songs on the radio in between cuts by Bob Dylan, James Taylor, Jackson Browne and Joni Mitchell") are great, but his fan community is what's truly priceless.
© Woodbridge Arts, Woodbridge, NJ
Mayor John E. McCormac
Music on Main Street at APAC brings the legendary blend of eclectic music it’s know for to the intimate Avenel Performing Arts Center (APAC). The center offers superb sound and sightlines in an attractive, comfortable setting.
Kim Richey came onto the music scene in the 1990s and entered her first recording contract at the age of 37 when she signed with Mercury Nashville. She spent the next few years promoting her albums and touring with the likes of Wynonna Judd.
Her songs have been recorded by Trisha Yearwood ("Believe Me Baby, I Lied"), Radney Foster ("Nobody Wins"), Brooks & Dunn ("Every River") and many others including Mary Chapin Carpenter, Gretchen Peters, Patty Loveless and Jim Lauderdale
Since her May 1995 self-titled debut album which contained the singles "Just My Luck" and "Those Words We Said", she's released a string of albums including Thorn in My Heart in 2013, which featured guest vocals from Trisha Yearwood, and "A Long Way back: Songs of Glimmer" in 2020
She'll have a new album out in 2024 just in time for her first appearance at the beautiful Avenel Performing Arts Center
American Idol Star Tristan McIntosh creates a stunning portrayal of Linda Ronstadt in the prime of her career. Supported by a superb backing band, Tristan’s formidable vocal talent and stage presence will transport you to a time when Linda Ronstadt ruled the airwaves as one of the most popular female vocalists in music history.
The Linda Ronstadt Experience takes you on a Musical Journey of Chart Topping Smash Hits, Youre No Good, When Will I Be Loved, That will Be The Day, Blue Bayou, and many more classic hits by Jackson Brown, Elvis Costello, Tom Petty, Neil Young, Warren Zevon and Little Feat to name a few !
A Heroes for Ghosts show is much more than just a musical performance. The lights and audiovisuals transport you into a fully immersive Pink Floyd experience. Come see and hear it for yourself at one of our upcoming shows.
New Jersey's next great Pink Floyd Tribute Band is coming to Avenel for a show you will not forget. See them now at a very reasonable price before they take the NJ music scene by storm
“Through the pandemic, I listened to John Prine more than any other songwriter, by far,” says Joe D’Urso. “It was just a kind of optimism and a bright light in a dark time. Even when he’s talking about a horrible situation, there’s still the humor.” A group billed as Joe D’Urso & Friends — also featuring Loren Korevec, David Frye, Tim O’Donohue, Gary Solomon, Michelle Solomon, Christopher Brown and Jake Thistle, present two show’s a year: one that marks John’s birthday each October and one that marks his passing each April.
Prine, whose best known songs include “Angel From Montgomery,” “Hello in There,” “Sam Stone,” “Please Don’t Bury Me,” “Paradise” and “All the Best”, died in 2020, of COVID, would have turned turned 78 on October 10th.
“As soon as I saw her, I knew she was the one,” says Larry. That epiphany occurred in a Manhattan rehearsal studio. Teresa, an actress and vocalist not long removed from Peckerwood Point, TN, had been pulled into a singing contest. Larry, the New York City native with a burgeoning reputation for his virtuosity on any instrument with strings, was brought in to play pedal steel guitar. “For me, it was love at first note,” she says. Together they went on to capture a greater prize.
From the beginning, they shared a musical sensibility; Larry courted her with a Louvin Brothers mix tape. The more they played together, the deeper it grew. With Teresa belting bluegrass songs on the bus with Larry and the rest of Bob Dylan’s band as they traveled between gigs (“It was very fulfilling,” recalls Larry), the couple’s rapport grew richer. When Dylan’s manager, Jeff Kramer, suggested that they make hay with this natural duo, he expressed a thought that had been already brewing in Larry’s head. The couple took another decade, much spent playing with Levon Helm and his band at his legendary Midnight Rambles in Woodstock, before Larry and Teresa elevated their rapport to that next level.
All This Time is the couple’s fourth album since taking that leap, following Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams (2015), Contraband Love (2017), and Live at Levon’s (2023). All This Time , says Larry, “feels more intuitive to me than the earlier records, less experimental, evidence that we’ve grown more aware of who we are and what we have to offer.” What they offer, evidently, is an intensely romantic album. Songs like Desert Island Dreams, Ride With Me, The Way You Make Me Feel, and I Love You fairly burst with the joy of love, while others recognize love’s humbling power. “All I want, all I need, is right in front of me,” testifies one song. “I still tremble at your name,” says another.
It’s not hard to recognize All This Time as a post-Covid album. Larry and Teresa had a hard pandemic. Before Teresa left for remote Tennessee to nurse her father through his last illness, Larry came down with a double-barreled blast of Covid, and Teresa was quarantined. “I held his hand over the phone,” she offers. Teresa says Larry’s lyrics often help her decipher what’s on his mind, but it doesn’t always take a code breaker to recognize the songs on this album as love letters sprouted in a harsh spring. “When you told me that you need me/ After all we’ve been through/ I still think about the love we have to give/ I think about you.”
The New York Times called Buffalo, NY born Willie Nile "one of the most gifted singer-songwriters to emerge from the New York scene in years." Uncut Magazine called him “A one-man Clash” and “the unofficial poet laureate of New York City. His album Streets Of New York was hailed as “a platter for the ages” by Uncut. Rolling Stone listed The Innocent Ones as one of the “Top Ten Best Under-The-Radar Albums of 2011” and BBC Radio called it “THE rock ‘n’ roll album of the year.” His single from that album, “One Guitar,” was the “Top Pick of the Week” in USA Today. Bono, Bruce Springsteen, Pete Townshend, Lou Reed, Lucinda Williams, Jim Jarmusch, and Little Steven are among those who have sung his praises.
His album, American Ride, won “Best Rock Album of the Year” at the Independent Music Awards. It appeared on dozens of year-end Top Ten lists for 2013 and was voted “Album Of The Year” by Twangville Magazine. Bono called it, “One of the great guides to unraveling the mystery that is the troubled beauty of America.”
MOJO wrote about his 2016 album World War Willie, “Four Stars! The real thing…stomp-‘til-ready rock’n’roll…timeless fare.” It won Album of the Year Reader’s Poll from Twangville Magazine and made numerous top ten lists for Album of the Year.
His album Positively Bob: Willie Nile Sings Bob Dylan from 2017 was hailed as “one of the best Dylan tribute albums ever made.” Powerpop Magazine wrote: “Astoundingly great…must be heard to be believed. And the Associated Press said his 2018 album Children Of Paradise “Might be the best album of his career!”
Willie has toured across the U.S. with The Who and has sung with Bruce Springsteen and Ringo Starr. As the induction program from the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame says: “His live performances are legendary.” His 2020 album New York At Night got rave reviews, with The Associated Press calling it: “As sharp and guitar-driven as ever…the fire within Nile, once a peer of The Replacements and The Clash, continues to light a similar torch…anthemic…custom made for these times.” Downbeat Magazine calling it a “sonic love letter to Gotham.”
His recent studio album The Day The Earth Stood Still features a duet with Steve Earle on the song “Blood On Your Hands.” The London Times called him “A man who embodies the true spirit of rock n’ roll.” The New Yorker wrote that Willie Nile is “One of the most brilliant singer-songwriters of the past 30 years.”
