Also featured this week are WRATFEST, Roadside Graves, Keith Kenny, The Wag, Wishbone, and Arts on the Hudson Fest.
Jersey City-based Rhyme & Reason Records are really proud to have released the latest album by Walter Salas-Humara, “Walterio,” featuring the beautifully soulful, artistically reflective ballad “Come in a Singer” (streaming below). Having gained a blast of fame in the late 1980s with his alt-country band, The Silos, Salas-Humara has continued to chop crafty pieces from the song tree to put on his musical wood pile. Inspired by his Cuban nickname, “Walterio” is chock full of great tunes. The singer-songwriter-guitarist has a hot show Sept. 14 in Nashville with Tony Emmanuel, Jim Lauderdale, Buddy Miller, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and others before he performs in his home base of Arizona, as well as in California throughout September. Stay tuned to Rhyme & Reason for East Coast dates.
Another hot Rhyme & Reason act is the eclectic Brooklyn-based Bhangra-inspired Red Baraat, who fuses the percussive, horn-driven South Asian style of music with jazz, hip-hop and psychedelic rock. The new “Sound of the People” is their second outing for the JC indie following last year’s “Bhangra Pirates.” Just home from a summer-long European and national tour, Red Baraat can be seen live Oct. 4 at(le) poisson rouge in New York City.
Working on a follow-up to her RARR debut EP, “There’s no one new around you,” Brooklyn singer-songwriter-guitarist pronoun recently released a single, “Wrong,” and soon will embark on a Midwest/East Coast tour. The trek will be with fellow songsmith Justin Courtney Pierre, an Epitaph recording act from Minneapolis.
Other RARR acts include the forthcoming NYC jazz trio Royal Artic Institute, the exceptional Jersey City hard rock band Black Wail, and the fantastically meaningful Glenn Morrow’s Cry for Help, all of whom will play the third annual North Jersey Indie Rock Festival on Oct. 6 at White Eagle Hall in Jersey City. Five labels and 20 of their acts will participate, including Little Dickman, State Champion and fest founders Mint 400 and Sniffling Indie Kids ...
Speaking of Mint 400, their latest release, the self-titled label debut of Brooklyn fuzz-rockers Ultra Major, will be celebrated on Aug. 30 at Coney Island Baby in New York City with label mates Yawn Mower and Philly’s Birthday Boy. Ultra Major, whose LP follows the 2015 album, “Pretending to Swim,” also will play the North Jersey Indie Rock Fest, again with Yawn Mower, as well as other label mates The Vice Rags, Guilty Giraffe, Tony Saxon, The Components, and Shithead’s Rainbow. They’ll also play with Yawn Mower on Oct. 18 at Piano’s, New York City, with label mates This Bliss, Rhyme & Reason’s The Royal Artic Institute, and a Chicago band called Problem People …
The beloved Asbury Park band Deal Casino will tour nationwide with The Wrecks in support of their forthcoming LP, “LLC,” which will be released in November. The tour kicks off Nov. 10 in Portland, Ore., and heads East for dates on Nov. 23 at Rec Room, Buffalo, N.Y.; Nov. 26, The Sinclair, Boston; Nov. 27, The Foundry, Philadelphia; Nov. 29, Gramercy Theatre, New York City; Nov. 30, Baltimore Soundstage, and Dec. 1, Asbury Lanes, before trekking South through Dec. 9 in Austin. “French Blonde,” the first of several singles leading up to the album, will drop on Aug. 31, but you can hear it now in the “Radio Jersey” archive and see a live version streaming above. The single’s release coincides with a house show in Asbury Park with Sonic Blume and Mandancing. Contact the band for the address. Deal Casino also will play the See Hear Now Festival on Sept. 30 on the Asbury Park beach with Jack Johnson, Social Distortion, The Front Bottoms, The Menzingers, Lettuce, G. Love & Special Sauce, The Original Wailers, Rayland Baxter, Nicole Atkins, Parlor Mob and more …
Godsmack and Shinedown’s summer-long tour in support for their respective 2018 albums “When Legends Rise” and “Attention Attention” wraps this holiday weekend with dates that include WRATFEST, the annual shindig at PNC Bank Arts Center of the awesome Jersey Shore HR/HM station 9.59 the Rat. This year, WRATFEST will be on Sept. 1. Opening will be Red Sun Rising.
“When Legends Rise,” Godsmack’s first album in four years, marks their debut for BMG Records and features the single “Bulletproof,” which is the soundtrack to a hysterical spoof of music videos streaming above. Shinedown’s “Attention Attention” on Atlantic Records features the scorching single, “Devil” …
Roadside Graves return to New Brunswick-originated Don Giovanni Records with the anthology “God Makes Junk: 2001-2016,” their first album since 2015’s “Acne/Ears.” The 39-track collection features the best of Roadside Graves, as well as unreleased tunes, demos, live takes and more. “God Makes Junk” will be celebrated courtesy of CoolDad Music on Sept. 1 at Asbury Park Yacht Club with Lowlight, featuring Roadside Graves drummer Colin Ryan, plus the roots-rockin’, barn-stormin’ two-piece Coach N’ Commando …
Asbury Park-based one-man-band Keith Kenny isn’t slowing down for a minute after a tour to Alaska this summer. Kenny will open for his New Hope pal Dean Ween on Aug. 30 on the Rocks Off Cruise out of New York City and then throughout September in Nevada, Oregon and California. He’ll also play Sept. 8 at John and Peter’s in New Hope and Oct. 18 at Krogh’s in Sparta before trekking to the U.K. for a six-show jaunt at the end of October. That will be followed by a tour of the Midwest, Eastern Pa. and the Upstate New York through Nov. 19. Now that’s Makin Waves …
The Bayshore band The Wag will celebrate their 20th anniversary together opening on Sept. 2 at The Stone Pony for Gavin DeGraw and Phillip Phillips. Tickets are only $25 if purchased through the band, who Wil Wheaton of “Star Trek” fame describes as the love child of The Beatles and The Cowsills. The harmonic sense of enthusiastic fun can be heard on their latest recording, “Continuum,” which soon will be followed by The Wags’ next release, due by year’s end …
Sharing that DeGraw/Phillips bill will be the great up-and-coming jam band Wishbone, who developed their improvisational chops at esteemed William Paterson University. Earlier this year, they released their debut EP, “Haradabee Blue,” which is expected to be followed by another EP this fall, sandwiched by a couple of videos. Wishbone also will play Sept. 28 at The Bitter End in New York City …
The inaugural Arts on the Hudson Fest will feature Evangelia, Foxanne, DAZED, Helloimdyland, Murdock, Stacy Collado, Elvia, 7 on Pump 1 and more on Sept. 1 in Jersey City’s Hamilton Park. Arts on the Hudson are those fine folks who’ve collaborated on bangin’ videos by Murdock and his JC pals in Cook Thugless.
Bob Makin is the reporter for www.MyCentralJersey.com/entertainment and a former managing editor of The Aquarian Weekly, which launched this column in 1988. Contact him at [email protected]. And like Makin Waves at www.facebook.com/makinwavescolumn.
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].
