NJ musicians celebrate American music — and Springsteen Center opening — at Monmouth University

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN CENTER FOR AMERICAN MUSIC

Performers during the encore of the “America 250: A Jersey Shore Celebration of the Nation’s Music Heritage” concert at The Pollak Theatre at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, May 29.

On June 4 and 5, The Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music at Monmouth University in West Long Branch — in anticipation of it June 13 opening — will present two concerts at Monmouth’s OceanFirst Bank Center that will be titled “Music America: The Songs That Shaped Us” and feature Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Kenny Chesney, Darlene Love and many others.

And on May 29, another concert — smaller but still loaded with talent, and similarly titled “America 250: A Jersey Shore Celebration of the Nation’s Music Heritage” — took place at the university’s Pollak Theatre. As its title implied, its lineup included musicians who are prominent in the Shore music scene.

“It really is like family night for all of us here,” said Gordon Brown of Williams Honor, who led the house band and contributed guitar and backing vocals to all the music.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN CENTER FOR AMERICAN MUSIC

Jake Thistle and Sonny Kenn at The Pollak Theatre.

Participants ranged from Springsteen contemporaries Vini “Mad Dog” Lopez and Sonny Kenn to relative youngsters such as Jake Thistle and Bobby Mahoney.

Lopez — who started working with Kenn all the way back in 1965, when he joined his band Sonny & the Starfires — said he was “the first rock ‘n’ roll star I ever met.” Lopez also said, referring to some of the other acts on the bill, that he was glad to see “the young guys taking over.”

Jackson Pines kicked the show off with a starkly beautiful version of a mournful Jersey folk song, “Freehold Jail” — learned from a 1938 Pine Barrens field recording by Mary Parks. In honor of his own nickname, Lopez sang an upbeat blues song, “Mad Dog,” originally recorded by Charles “Mad Dog” Sheffield” in the ’50s. Williams Honor performed a medley of the classic country songs “Crazy” and “Storms Never Last.”

But it was not a show devoted exclusively to roots/Americana music. Some of the artists performed songs of their own and/or rock songs from various eras.

Certainly, songs such as “Rocket 88” “Johnny B. Goode” and “Get Together” — sung by Kenn, Lopez and Pat Guadagno, respectively — are iconic, and you can easily see why they belonged in a show like this. Billy Joel’s “You May Be Right” … not so much, though Pat Roddy’s version certainly had energy and attitude to spare.

And then there was Springsteen’s “New York City Serenade,” which might not made it into a show like this at any other time or place. But (1) you knew there had to be at least one Springsteen song in the setlist and (2) Guadagno had Lopez and percussionist Richard Blackwell — both of whom performed on Springsteen’s original 1973 recording — to work with. With an elegant piano introduction by Mike Gilch and firmly focused vocals by Guadagno, this song became the highlight of the show’s first half; it may have been a winding epic, but it held the crowd’s attention all the way through, and got a standing ovation at the end.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN CENTER FOR AMERICAN MUSIC

Johnny Kasun at The Pollak Theatre.

Bob Dylan was represented by two songs: “All Along the Watchtower,” with Thistle on lead vocals and guitarist Johnny Kasun helping to evoke Jimi Hendrix’s version of it; and “Like a Rolling Stone,” performed as the first encore, with Thistle, Guadagno, Roddy and Jackson Pines’ Joe Makoviecki singing one verse apiece. The show peaked for me, though, with Bobby Mahoney’s loud, fast and passionate version of Green Day’s “American Idiot” — undeniably an anthem for our times.

The second encore, Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World,” had both a sense of foreboding that made it perfectly relevant for 2026, and an explosiveness that made it the right song for the show to end on. Mahoney, Lopez and Williams Honor’s Reagan Richards split the lead vocals on this one, with Kasun once again earning MVP status on guitar.

“We always want to pay tribute to the artists who live here, who do work here on a daily basis — a weekly basis,” said the center’s executive director, Bob Santelli, in his opening remarks. “They are part of our extended family, and we would not think about beginning this grand opening celebration without including them … you’ll hear them again and again as they do programs with us at the Springsteen Center.”

“We have this new building that not only represents our history, but our future — and we’re looking forward to building on that future,” said Brown before the encores began.

For more on the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music, visit springsteencenter.org.
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Here is the show’s setlist. Original songs are in bold.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN CENTER FOR AMERICAN MUSIC

Bobby Mahoney at The Pollak Theatre.

“Freehold Jail,” Jackson Pines
“Cassville Lights,” Jackson Pines
“Rocket 88,” Sonny Kenn
“Driving Blind,” Sonny Kenn
“Johnny B. Goode,” Vini Lopez with Sonny Kenn
“Mad Dog Blues,” Vini Lopez with Sonny Kenn
“Get Together,” Pat Guadagno, with Vini Lopez
“New York City Serenade,” Pat Guadagno, with Vini Lopez and Richard Blackwell
“All Along the Watchtower,” Jake Thistle
“Hiding in the Vacancy,” Jake Thistle
“Storms Never Last”/”Crazy,” Williams Honor
“No Umbrella,” Williams Honor
“You May Be Right,” Pat Roddy
“American Irishman (for Joe Finn),” Pat Roddy
“American Idiot,” Bobby Mahoney
“Smoke and Drive,” Bobby Mahoney

Encore
“Like a Rolling Stone,” Ensemble
“Rockin’ in the Free World,” Ensemble

The house band for the show was: Gordon Brown (guitar, bandleader), Reagan Richards (vocals), Johnny Kasun (guitar), Mike Gilch (piano), Dan Lavery (drums), Laurence Hart (bass), Tommy LaBella (saxophone, percussion), Liam Bornovski (pedal steel guitar)

Here are some clips from the show, posted to Facebook by Rich Russo:

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