Joel Plaskett sings his “Song for Jersey.”
Canadian singer-songwriter Joel Plaskett came to New Jersey in January 2013 to perform at Tim McLoone’s Supper Club in Asbury Park, as part of the annual Light of Day festival. And he left with a new song: A odd and silly but also warm and catchy stream-of-consciousness salute to the Garden State called “Song for Jersey.”
In the song, which he included on his album “The Park Avenue Sobriety Test” (released last month), he sings:
“Walking through the darkest night/Searching for the Light of Day/If you want to take a left make sure you’ve got the right of way/Watching fuzzy TV/Working on a tune/Wrote one at the Belvedere/And played it at McLoone’s.”
(The Belvedere is, presumably, the Belvedere Motel in Seaside Park, though I’m not sure of that.)
The song was written soon after Hurricane Sandy hit the Shore, and includes several references to it, including, perhaps, the opening thought: “Nature is a mother …”
New Jersey celebrated its 350th birthday last year. And in the 350 Jersey Songs series, we are marking the occasion by posting 350 songs — one a day, for almost a year — that have something to do with the state, its musical history, or both. We started in September 2014, and will keep going until late in the summer.
If you would like to suggest any songs to be included, please let me know in the comments section underneath the video. And if you want to see the entire list, either alphabetically or in the order the songs were selected, click here.
