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August 12, 2023

August 14, 2023 If you already are or soon will be in the Philadelphia area for one or both of this week's concerts by Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, try not to miss the "50 Years of Bruce Springsteen Music Celebration." It's a free exhibition of photographs, concert posters, gold/platinum-record awards, and other items of memorabilia, some of them signed, as well. Framed photos and other items also will be available for purchase. The exhibition is taking place at Coll's Custom Framing, located at 324 Fayette Street in the Philly-area suburb of Conshohocken, PA. It's open now through September 2, available to visit every day of the week except Sunday, beginning at 9:30 each morning and continuing through the day until 5:30 pm, except on Thursdays (when the exhibition won't close until 6:30 pm) and on Saturdays (when the exhibition will close at 4:30 pm.) Many of the photos being exhibited were taken by the late, great local rock-photography legend, Phil Ceccola. Ceccola first began to photograph and befriend Bruce Springsteen in the early 1970s, as Springsteen was just beginning to develop and nurture his large, rabid, and longstanding fanbase in the Philadelphia area. Ceccola and Springsteen remained friends until Ceccola's tragic early death from brain cancer in 2003. One of Ceccola's photos of Springsteen, caught in a thoughtful moment backstage at the Philly area's legendary Main Point nightclub in Bryn Mawr, PA, became the cover-photo (in slightly altered form to remove all nearby tobacco-associated paraphernalia from the shot) for Bruce's 1998 career-spanning box-set of outtakes and B-sides entitled simply TRACKS. On Saturday, August 19, the "50 Years of Bruce Springsteen Music Celebration" also will feature a special appearance by former E Street Band drummer Vini "Mad Dog" Lopez. Click here for details. And hey, if you're busy zippin' around the Philly area catching Springsteen in concert and in vintage photos, you're gonna need to start off each day with a good, healthy breakfast. The locally-owned (and women-owned) Goodness Bowls mini-franchise has you covered, with their regular menu-item the "Bruce Springreen" bowl: a chilled/frozen base of banana, mango, green spirulina, kale, spinach, and coconut milk, topped with granola, some more banana and mango, blueberries, hemp seeds, and honey. The "Bruce Springreen" bowl is available exclusively at Goodness Bowls' two Philly-area locations: Villanova, PA (site of a pair of locally legendary 1973 Springsteen performances at Villanova University,) and down the (South Jersey) shore, where everything's alright, in Avalon, NJ.

August 16, 2023 As per this afternoon's official announcement... "Due to Bruce Springsteen having been taken ill, his concerts with The E Street Band at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on August 16 and 18 have been postponed. We are working on rescheduling the dates, so please hold on to your tickets as they will be valid for the rescheduled shows. For more information, please visit Phillies.com/springsteen." Here's hoping you're feeling better ASAP, Bruce!

August 23, 2023 Only a few tickets remain available for the 5th annual Spring-Nuts Seaside Serenade, a huge annual social gathering of Springsteen fans, and time is quickly running out to buy yours if you haven't done so already. This year's event will take place right near East Rutherford, NJ's MetLife Stadium. Inside the stadium itself, of course, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band are scheduled to jump-start Labor Day Weekend 2023 a bit earlier than usual. Spring-Nuts' 2023 Serenade will take place on Thursday August 31, the day after the first of Bruce and the E Streeters' three scheduled New Jersey concerts. The Serenade event will take place at Redd's Bar and Restaurant in Carlstadt, NJ, celebrating not only five years of annual Serenades and the return of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band to New Jersey, but also the eighth anniversary of the Spring-Nuts social-media group. As always, all proceeds from the Spring-Nuts Seaside Serenades go to support worthy charitable efforts. Our friend Howie Chaz, the founder of Spring-Nuts, informs us that so far ticket-sales for this year's event have raised $30,000 for WhyHunger. Click here for more information on the 5th annual Spring-Nuts Seaside Serenade, and to purchase your ticket(s) before it's too late.

August 24, 2023 Today Nils Lofgren has released the official music-video for “Ain’t The Truth Enough,” which features Ringo Starr on drums, Kevin McCormick on bass, and "E Street Choir" vocalist Cindy Mizelle. You can watch it directly above. The track is the opener on Nils' newest album Mountains, which also features guests Neil Young, the Howard (University) Gospel Choir, Ron Carter, and the late, great David Crosby. Written in the wake of the January 6th insurrection, the track reckons with the ways that misinformation and demagoguery can tear families apart and silo us in our own realities. “It’s about a fierce mother dealing with her husband who's just home from the Jan. 6 insurrection,” states Lofgren. “No bull, just the brutal truth.” Click here to read "Rocky Ground: Lisa Iannucci on Nils Lofgren's latest solo effort, Mountains."

August 24, 2023 Best wishes to everyone for a great show tonight. (IG screenshot by Scott Cieri @ SPRING-NUTS)

August 26, 2023 To help raise funds for the important, ongoing work of TeachRock, Stevie Van Zandt is offering up for raffle a wicked-cool chance for one lucky winner to nab a pair of GA/pit tickets for all three of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band's shows at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium on August 30, September 1, and September 3. Each raffle ticket costs only $25, with the per-ticket-price discounted if you purchase in blocks of five, ten, or twenty. All tickets for this special raffle can be purchased by clicking here. The winner's pot also has been sweetened with three official Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band 2023 Tour hoodies and a pair of E Street Lounge passes for each show. Other important information: The prize-package does not include meet-and-greets or photo-lines with any members of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band. The GA-tickets prizes do not offer any early access into the venue; you will enter when doors open to the general public. All chances to purchase raffle tickets will end on Monday, August 28, 2023 at 5:59pm ET, and the charity prize-package recipient will be randomly selected after that time. The winner will be notified sometime on Monday evening, August 28, 2023 via an email message with ticket- and will-call information. (Tickets will not be mailed.) The prize-package does not include coverage of any costs related to travel or parking. Tickets are non-transferable and can’t be exchanged for other shows. All raffle-ticket purchases are tax-deductible donations in support of Stevie Van Zandt’s education foundation, The Rock and Soul Forever Foundation / TeachRock.org. Click here for all details and to purchase your raffle tickets, and good luck to everyone, baby!

August 30, 2023 How DOES he do it?! Tomorrow night, just one day after providing The Big Beat for almost three consecutive hours on the drum riser for Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band at tonight's MetLife Stadium concert, and just one night before the band's next New Jersey performance this Friday, Mighty Max Weinberg will high-tail it to Huntington, Long Island, NY for a gig with his other band, Max Weinberg's Jukebox, at The Paramount. Click here for more information and to purchase tickets. The Jukebox shows are fully interactive, all-request gigs. Max and his great four-piece band let the audience write each show's setlist, giving them complete control by voting for their favorites from a video-menu of more than 200 songs, "everything from the Beatles to the Stones to Bruce and The E Street Band’s biggest hits," promises Max's website, "and hear the group play ‘em the way they want to hear them played!" It's great fun, and it shines a unique spotlight on The Mighty One's consistently superb drumming, as well as his band-leading and ingratiating "host-for-the-evening" talents. There's also another Max Weinberg's Jukebox gig scheduled for September 5 at Cleveland's Cain Park, for which tickets can be purchased by clicking here. More Max Weinberg's Jukebox concerts are scheduled and being added for the upcoming autumn months, as well. Visit MaxWeinberg.com for the most up-to-date information on Max Weinberg's Jukebox and all of Max's other solo projects.

September 7, 2023 After being forced by illness to postpone two scheduled Philly shows in mid-August, but then delivering a set of strong and extremely well-received concerts with the E Street Band for his Boston- and Jersey-area fans, it seemed that Bruce Springsteen was fully recovered and back to rockin' on all cylinders. Unfortunately, his doctors - who've been treating him for symptoms of peptic ulcer disease - have decided otherwise, and have recommended that he postpone the remainder of his scheduled September gigs with the E Street Band. Disappointing news, for sure, but of course we're also very glad to know that Bruce is listening to the docs and doing what is best for his health at this time. Here's hoping that he'll be fully recovered as quickly as possible, and that he and the E Street Band will be back onstage together delivering more great performances beginning in early November, when their tour is scheduled to resume, starting with a series of shows in Canada.

September 5, 2023 EDITOR'S NOTE: Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band weren't the only New Jersey musical legends rocking the Garden State over Labor Day Weekend 2023. Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes headlined a Saturday-night summer blowout that took place both inside and outside Asbury Park's legendary live-music venue, The Stone Pony. Letters To You contributor Mark Krajnak, the JerseyStyle photographer himself, was there to witness it all. Here's Mark's report, accompanied by some of his great photographs, of course. (And remember to click on any of the photos to see them all in full-screen gallery mode.) Has there ever been a bigger weekend in New Jersey, featuring "The Holy Trinity" of Asbury Park music? Maybe there has, but it certainly hasn’t been in quite a while. This Labor Day Weekend extravaganza kicked off last Wednesday, for most, when Bruce Springsteen, Little Steven and rest of the E Street Band kicked off a three-night set at Giants Stadium (Sorry…MetLife Stadium. Old habits die hard.) The Jersey Sound continued up there on Friday with Night 2, but really started to sizzle in Asbury Park on Saturday when Southside Johnny – the third prong of the AP musical triumvirate – and the Asbury Jukes took the stage at the legendary Stone Pony to help roll up the boardwalk for Summer 2023. Before a packed Stone Pony Summer Stage audience, with ocean tradewinds softly blowing and tousling Johnny's hair - but not blowing hard enough to knock the stiff-brimmed white hat off seersucker-clad bandleader Jeff Kazee’s head – Southside and the Asbury Jukes helped ease us all into these final, waning days of summer. Because we all know summer unofficially ends on Labor Day, no matter what the calendar says, right? So, it was up to the Jukes to put this summer to bed, and that they did. They came out jamming, as they always do, with "This Time It’s For Real," "Passion Street," and "This Time Baby’s Gone For Good." Johnny was decked out in his colorful Caribbean-style shirt, which, he said he was wearing to honor Jimmy Buffett, who had just passed way. While reflecting on Jimmy’s musical history, and especially for all of the Parrotheads in the audience, the Jukes delivered a suitably Calypso version of "Margaritaville," but one where Jeff Jersey-fied the lyrics just a little, singing, "…all these Jersey tourists and locals…covered in oil" in the opening verse. As the night wore on, and the breeze picked up, a definite chill was in the air, a harbinger of the coming autumn months. Johnny looked up at one point and noted the hazy moon overhead, prompting a sweet rendition of "Blue Moon." (The true Blue Moon – the second full moon of August – occurred a couple of nights earlier, but close enough!) As is often the case, the band closed out their encore with a rousing version of Sam Cooke’s, "Havin’ A Party," which everyone in the band seemed to take part in. In the end, while no one really wanted to go home, they had to. Many were probably headed up the NJ Turnpike the next night to see those other local guys (and gals) finish up the job they started on Wednesday. ______________ While Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes capped a long late-afternoon and evening at The Stone Pony, the music started much earlier in the day. Promised Land Band, featuring high-octane lead singer Kenny Munson, kicked things off inside the Pony with their songs, as well as covers of Springsteen, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Little Steven, U2 and others. They were then followed, also inside, by the duet of Billy Walton and Destinee Monroe, who did their set acoustically. Before the blazing sun went down, the sounds shifted outside when Illinois native Matthew Curry took the stage with his rock and blues-tinged songs, plus some covers as well. Curry has two local Jersey Shore guys as part of his band, Mark Masefield on keys, and Francis Valentino on drums. At various points, Billy Walton and Destinee Monroe jumped onstage to help out, and Jeff Kazee sidled up to the extra piano at one point, a soft-billed blue fedora on his head. And as if all of this wasn’t enough, the night closed out, late night, with Jarod Clemons and the Late Nights inside the Pony. Jarod is still nursing his broken leg but even sitting down throughout his set, he was able the deliver the funky blues he’s becoming known for. An epic Labor Day Weekend of New Jersey music for sure! Words and Photos by Mark Krajnak | JerseyStyle Photography. Follow him on Instagram at @jerseystyle_photography or on his blog.

September 11, 2023 “We know that if you want a kid to succeed, you don’t tell her to take her earbuds out. You ask her what she’s listening to, and then you trace it back together. Kids come to us with the natural gift of curiosity, and the TeachRock curriculum helps teachers meet them there on the way to meaningful learning.” - TeachRock founder Stevie Van Zandt “[Stevie Van Zandt’s Rock and Soul Forever Foundation] and its TeachRock program bring an essential curriculum of music and culture into school, and make it available at no cost to educators. In a time of cutbacks in arts funding, Steve’s programs are keeping kids engaged in the arts and in school. This is his greatest legacy.” – TeachRock Founders Board member Bruce Springsteen The 2023-24 school-year will mark a major step forward for TeachRock, the organization launched in 2006 by founder Steven Van Zandt with the support of Founders Board members Bono, Jackson Browne, Martin Scorsese, and Bruce Springsteen. Two Tennessee public schools - Red Bank Middle School in Chattanooga and West End Middle School in Nashville - will implement TeachRock's new Harmony Student Wellness Program with all students on a daily basis during the 2023-24 school-year. West End Middle School also will work with TeachRock to develop International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program Unit Plans for its students. Letters To You recently spoke with TeachRock's Executive Director Bill Carbone and Partner School Liaison Gina Machado about these exciting developments. While the TeachRock resources and curriculum-units already are being used widely by many teachers and schools across the U.S. and even in other countries abroad, TeachRock's 2023-24 work with the Tennessee schools will be part of a new phase of growth and expansion. "There have been plenty of partnerships," Carbone told us, "but this is our first program where the school says, 'We're going to do this program; all hands on deck.' We help them set it up. It runs 10-15 minutes per day in Homeroom or Advisory Period. The full school does it. So it's an evolution. We've done all of these partnerships where we've worked with, maybe, all of the social-studies teachers, or at times with the whole school and the goal is every subject-area tries arts-integration to some degree... But this is a much more refined full-school program. We did it for the first time last year in one school, and this year is really our big pilot year where we're going to run it in a number of different places, different geographies, different student populations, and really get to see what works." The Harmony Student Wellness Program also emphasizes social-emotional learning in its presentation of TeachRock's curriculum content. "We've had social- and emotional-learning content on the website before," said Machado, "but this is different in that it's a comprehensive program that offers a shared experience to every child in the school... What sparks this? Certainly the COVID-19 years and seeing the outcome and the effects on children after being shut down and having interruptions in their education, but it's always been important to educate the whole child... You're not going to get to the math, the science, and the social studies if a kid is coming into class and they're not emotionally present. Kids come in; they're humans just like us. They bring their own baggage from home; what is the stuff that they need to work through and learn how to cope with in order to be able to access the core-content curriculum that we're trying to teach? I think COVID-19 really brought that need to the forefront. We've always needed to care for the child as a whole person, but now it really has a lot of educators thinking about it. And one of the strengths of our organization is listening to teacher voice in addition to student voice, and applying that to our resources. Our goal is to create things that are really turnkey, that teachers can open and pretty much be ready to deliver. Ultimately, by supporting teachers in this way, we know that we're reaching tons and tons of students." One component of the program is designed to connect with parents and guardians as stakeholders, too. A weekly letter goes home to students' families to inform them of what songs the students will hear, the topics that will be discussed, etc. This way, added Machado, "the families are really in on it, too, and we're all coming together as a community, not just the school-building community but the families who are part of it, as well." Another key component of the Harmony Student Wellness Program is the involvement of members of TeachRock's newly formed Artist Council. The Council currently consists of fourteen members, all of them notable figures who collectively represent a variety of musical genres: Erykah Badu, Common, Sheryl Crow, Peter Gabriel, Norah Jones, DJ Khaled, Skip Marley, Darryl McDaniels, Melle Mel, Margo Price, Rapsody, Gina Schock, Marty Stuart, and Taboo. "There are five modules in the program," explained Machado, "and in each of those modules we feature one of the Artist Council members." Erykah Badu led off with what Machado described as a "beautiful student-facing video for us, where she's talking directly to students and saying basically, 'You all have the potential inside of you.' Just a really wonderful message to them, and we already had a lesson written about individuality, which is centered around her career and her music, so that video tied into that lesson so beautifully." Carbone added, "We've recently done a bunch of [Artist Council] interviews. Darryl McDaniels and Melle Mel came to Stevie's studio, and we did interviews with them, with content from those interviews added to our hip-hop resources. The whole point was, 'Okay, I'm behind the camera asking the questions, but you're talking to kids. You're talking to teenagers when you're looking at the camera.' So we got them to tell their stories and their roles in the history of hip-hop. Youth culture, too...like, their hopes and dreams as kids. We were able to cut those up into little pieces and put those into our hip-hop lesson plans. And we're working on even more of that. DJ Khaled also sent some videos that we were able to use for some of that project. "Marty Stuart, on the country-music side, this year at the National Council for the Social Studies' annual conference in December - which is a major conference with about 4000 teachers - will do a keynote conversation with another educator and me, including a little bit of Marty performing. The subject is the similarities between culturally responsive education in urban and rural environments. What does it mean to use music to reach kids in cities and what does it mean to use music to reach kids in extremely rural areas? What are the things that are most important? Some educators who've been in both situations will tell you that they're so similar. The kids need the same things, though we sort of talk about those two situations differently, and they're filtered through our own sorts of issues in the United States, but when it comes down to it those kids need the same things, so how can we give them what they need through reaching them with music?" All of the Artist Council members, added Carbone, "basically agreed to do something with us in the next three years. If they're touring one year, you might not be able to do much of anything with them, but then the next year... So it's really exciting, and I feel like we're just getting started with it, on how to engage them." Carbone also stated that Little Steven Van Zandt - not surprisingly - continues to put "a lot of heart, soul, time, and energy" into TeachRock, "and it's been really exciting to take the idea that was totally his in the founding of this organization, and just kind of evolve it with him. I also would like everyone to know that we pretty much self-fund through fundraising campaigns, and work towards grants. Donations are always appreciated, of course, and are tax-deductible. (Please click here to donate.) Other ways to help are sharing information about TeachRock.org with teachers and administrators, if you have educators in your life. Ask them to take a look and see what they think. And if you work in a place that has corporate giving, make sure that your corporate-giving office knows that we exist and can provide information on our various funding campaigns." TeachRock also has just launched an ongoing partnership with The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music. Next month we'll have more information on this exciting partnership. Stay tuned...

September 7, 2023 The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music at Monmouth University will present a symposium on Saturday, October 28, 2023 that celebrates the release of Springsteen’s landmark second album a half century ago. Entitled The 50th Anniversary: The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle, the day-long event will include panel discussions, interviews, a pop-up exhibit, and musical performances of the songs on the album - which officially will turn fifty on November 5, 2023 - performed by regional musicians. Among the participants in the symposium will be original E Street Band members, music industry legends, and special guests. “This conference marks the second held in a series of 50th-anniversary events that explore and celebrate Springsteen’s early albums and landmark events,” said Bob Santelli, Executive Director of the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music. “Public programs such as this one and the symposium held earlier this year on Bruce’s debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., are part of our core mission.” “The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle was undeniably a pivotal album in Springsteen’s career. Coming off lackluster sales of his debut album and no hit single on the horizon, Bruce’s record company was no longer convinced that they still had a future together. The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle would draw on what Bruce did best; he assembled the first version of what would become the legendary E Street Band, penned some of his most lively spirited songs, and created an upbeat, jazzy, soulfully rocking album,” said Eileen Chapman, Director of the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music. “Not only did this album give us concert favorites such as 'Rosalita' and Kitty’s Back,' its importance and connection to the rest of Bruce’s career cannot be disputed." The symposium, which is open to the public, will be held in Monmouth University’s Pollak Theatre. Registration is required. The cost for attending the symposium is $100, with a 4-ticket limit per person. Each ticket will include a limited, special-edition The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle t-shirt. Tickets for The 50th Anniversary: The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle will go on sale tomorrow, Friday September 8, beginning at 10am at the Monmouth University Box Office located in the Ocean First Bank Center in West Long Branch, NJ. You also will be able to purchase tickets online by clicking here.