"It's my parents fault; it's a biblical name. People don't know how to spell it, everybody adds a, "C" to the beginning and it's just, "Sh." I'm going to put up a billboard one day; although I don't care that much so maybe I won't put up a billboard (Laughs)," says singer/songwriter Shlomo Franklin as he discussed his show tonight at Salt Gastropub on Route 206 in Stanhope, NJ, his music and his recently released EP, "Don't Love Anybody."
Shlomo learned a work ethic at an early age and attributes his upbringing to his musical style and influences. "I grew up between Monsey and Bethel, NY. In Bethel I lived on a farm and I think that at first glance that's where my music comes from a bit more but a lot of my music is about religion and I don't know; being alive. I've certainly been alive at all times throughout my life so I think that it influenced it; it makes you either want to escape or find a better truth. Whether that truth is in another person or another place or another story or someone else's story or your own story or something you twist to make it look like someone else's story, or someone else but in the end it's yours."
There is something refreshing in youth and a new approach to today's often in disarray music scene is always welcome, Shlomo seems to keep a proper perspective on his music and life in general. "That's a great question," he said when asked what keeps him in check. "I think that trying to see the bigger picture without seeing the smaller version of the bigger picture. I think that throughout life we'll zoom out and look at the bigger picture and we think, oh that's it but we should really zoom out a little bit farther and see more. I like the really small picture and the really, really big picture but the medium picture doesn't do any good for me. Hopefully on a good day, you're up on the mountain and you see everything for what it is or you're in the valley and you don't see much of anything except what really matters. I try to situate myself in those positions and then stand back and let it happen."
"Don't Love Anybody," was released on May 18 and was produced by Grammy Award winning C. Lanzbom (Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen), Shlomo says that the two clicked from the start and that the they now have a bond. "They're little songs, I love them a lot. I made it with a fellow named C. Lanzbom who has become kind of like my mentor and a dear friend and we made this record. He knows an all star cast of great session players and we just recorded these songs in a studio and yeah...."
As his voice trailed off into a reflective pause, he went on about where his music may fit in today's categorical world of streaming. "I'm 22 years old, I know it sounds cliche but I've never thought about genre. I don't know, the songs just kind of do the driving and I just sit in the passenger seat and just kind of give them directions when they need it; I'm along for the ride."
Most songwriters are experience driven, be it through broken hearts, death, job stress or jaded by life and/or the music business in general but at only 22 years of age; what drives him to write? "That's a really good question and I love your bluntness. Hopefully a song is born out of the triumph over a certain bitterness. Hopefully your response to the bitterness is not bitter but the subject or the seed of it is some form of terrible experience. The source of everything is the profound shock of me simply being alive but my songs are not celebrating the shock but the calm that comes after the shock and the peace that comes with some form of triumph and the conquering of that experience. I find myself very joyful because I'm not in that anymore because I wrote the songs; songs are kind of like exorcisms of pain. So if the songs are successful then you've succeeded in what you were trying to do; in which case you're left with nothing but joy."
When questioned as to what he thinks of his own efforts and how his music translates to the crowds with him either solo or with a band behind him and how he compares to other artists who've produced both rock and acoustic or folk records; he was quick and candid. "Absolutely, I think all of the great artists, they were/are sort of both. I think it depended on the geography or if someone was able to get a band, that's what made it rock 'n' roll or folk or whatever. So I don't really think about that; ideally I love playing with a band and I love playing solo as well. Ideally, I think my record is a little bit of both; what kind of song is, "Sympathy For The Devil?" "Is that a folk song or is it a rock 'n' roll song? It's just rock 'n' roll because they made it a little more groovy and put some instruments behind it and its got Keith Richards on it but they could've done that either way."
When marketing his product, Shlomo feels today's climate is somewhat adrift from the days of big stage shows and presentations but seems to feel it may be more of a generation gap. "Even Elvis was a performer and it was a production; I feel like that's something that's not necessarily missing, it's just a divide between original songwriters and that kind of thing has maybe gotten a little wider? Maybe it's just the way of pop music? I don't know; what do you think?"
Gaps or closeness, acoustic or electric; what can we expect when we go to a Shlomo show? "I don't know but on a good day, really good stories and really good songs and on a bad day, some really bad stories but still really good songs."
To discover more about Shlomo Franklin, please visit www.shlomofranklin.com.
That's it for this week! Please continue to support live and original music and until next week....ROCK ON!
Join us for McCarter at the Museum - renowned performing artists in one-night only events at the Princeton University Art Museum.
Jason Robert Brown is a four-time Tony Award-winning composer and lyricist of The Last Five Years, Parade, Songs for a New World, 13, The Bridges of Madison County, Honeymoon In Vegas and The Connector, has performed as a soloist or with his band in venues around the world, including sold-out shows at the London Palladium and Carnegie Hall. His albums as a singer-songwriter include Wearing Someone Else’s Clothes and How We React and How We Recover on Ghostlight, and Coming From Inside the House and Live In Concert with Stephen Sondheim on Concord.
With Special Guest Tony nominee Betsy Wolfe. Tony Award-nominated actress Betsy Wolfe is currently starring as Audrey in the acclaimed Off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors, following her recent Broadway run as Madeline Ashton in the hit musical Death Becomes Her. She previously originated the title role in Joy, the new musical inspired by inventor Joy Mangano, and earned a 2023 Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her celebrated performance as Anne Hathaway in & Juliet. Other Broadway credits include starring as Jenna in Waitress, Cordelia in the acclaimed revival of Falsettos, Bullets Over Broadway, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Everyday Rapture, and 110 in the Shade, as well as her critically acclaimed performance as Cathy in the Off-Broadway revival of The Last Five Years. Wolfe made her Metropolitan Opera debut in Die Fledermaus and has appeared as a guest artist with more than 65 symphony, pops, and philharmonic orchestras worldwide, including the New York Philharmonic and BBC Symphony Orchestra, with performances at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. Her screen credits include First One In, Estella Scrooge, CBS’s Instinct, and the film adaptation of The Last Five Years. Wolfe is also the co-founder of BroadwayEvolved, the acclaimed musical theatre training program she launched in 2018 to train and mentor the next generation of theatre artists.
A limited number of early access tickets for McCarter Director’s Circle members and members of the Museum’s Partner Circle are available, on sale Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at 12:00 PM. General public on sale begins Friday, September 18, 2026 at 12:00 PM.
Please be aware there is no public drop-off or parking at the Museum. For visitors with mobility needs, please contact the Museum at least three business days in advance of your visit to request special access to the Museum via Elm Drive. Call 609-258-3788 and select option 1 to speak to a visitor services staff member, or email Louise Barrett at [email protected].
