Multi-talented singer/songwriter and guitarist Jill Sobule will perform at Jersey Shore Arts Center in Ocean Grove on Saturday, January 11, 2025 at 8:00pm. Renee Maskin, a staple of the Asbury Park music scene, will open the show. The show is part of the on-going Split Level Concert Series which highlights renowned Americana and contemporary folk musicians in a uniquely intimate setting.
Tickets are $25 and are available for purchase online. Jersey Shore Arts Center is located at 66 S. Main Street in Ocean Grove, New Jersey.
Jill Sobule has released a dozen albums, spanning three decades of recording, tackling such topics as the death penalty, anorexia nervosa, shoplifting, reproduction, the French Resistance, adolescent malaise, LGBTQ issues, and the Christian Right, to name a few, with her trademark wit and aplomb.
The Denver-born singer/songwriter/guitarist's work is at once deeply personal and socially conscious, seriously funny and derisively tragic. While her songs cover expansive thematic ground, they benefit greatly from Jill’s subtle intelligence and skillful light-handedness. No sloganeering flag-and-fist waving here, but rather portrait-&-story songs about human beings, real and imagined, which allow us to step back from the issues they tackle, be they individual or societal, and to relate to them as we would to a close friend. On stage, she entertains, amuses, provokes, and more often than not, takes her audiences on an emotional roller coaster, from comedy to pathos in a few bars of music, often within the same song.
Sobule’s recording career began in 1990 with the album Things Here Are Different (MCA), produced by Todd Rundgren. Radio took notice thanks to the single “Too Cool To Fall In Love.” Her 1995 self-titled album (Atlantic) brought her mainstream commercial and critical success with two hit singles: the satirical gem “Supermodel” from the movie Clueless and “I Kissed A Girl” (the original), the first ever openly queer-themed Billboard Top 20 record.
For her most recent album, the Ben Lee-produced Nostalgia Kills, Sobule turned her warm wit and laser-focused poet’s eye on herself more than ever before. For all its graceful, funny, and heartbreaking explorations of awkward youth and grown-up regrets, Nostalgia Kills is as of-the-moment as anything in Sobule’s catalog. Through her own experiences, she explores issues our society still collectively struggles with (LGBTQ rights, teen mental health, our unhealthy obsession with staying forever young) and gently skewers our tendency to dwell on the past at the expense of addressing the present.
In November of 2019 Jill sang a song as herself on an episode of the Simpsons. She has performed with Neil Young, Billy Bragg, Steve Earle, Cyndi Lauper, Tom Morello, Warren Zevon, and John Doe. She inducted Neil Diamond into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame. She has shared billing with Don Henley, Joe Jackson, Warren Zevon, the influential LA punk band X, and Lloyd Cole & The Negatives. She regularly co-stars with comedian/actress/author/SNL alumnae Julia Sweeney in their Jill & Julia Show, an unusual and mesmerizing combination of song and storytelling. A road warrior, she plays more than 100 shows a year.
Jill’s latest project is her New York Times Critics pick, Drama Desk nominated autobiographical musical “F**k 7th Grade” which premiered at the Wild Project in 2022; had a remount in the winter of 2023 and again in November of 2024.
Opener Renee Maskin is known for her distinctive voice, literally and artistically. With three solo LPs released in three years, her prolific output pulls from a deep well of influence, from country, to garage, to modern indie-rock. Maskin has notably opened for a wide range of acts, including Jon Langford (Mekons), William Tyler, Del Amitri, Tyler Ramsey, and notably toured with her former group, Lowlight, in support of The Pretenders. Maskin was named “Songwriter of the Year 2023” by New Jersey Stage Magazine. Her most recent LP, “Shimmer,” was named one of 2023’s National Top Albums by The Aquarian.
Jersey Shore Arts Center and Split Level Concerts are proud to partner with Brookdale Public Radio 90.5 The Night and Musicians On A Mission (MOAM) to promote the concert series. Musicians On A Mission is a non-profit organization dedicated to creating connection and inspiring giving through music. MOAM will be on hand at all of the Split Level concerts, collecting cash donations that will be split between Jersey Shore Arts Center and a MOAM charity chosen for each concert. January’s beneficiary of cash donations will be Mercy Center in Asbury Park. MOAM will also be collecting non-perishable food donations to benefit Fulfill.
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