(OCEAN GROVE, NJ) -- Split Level Concerts at the Jersey Shore Arts Center (JSAC) in Ocean Grove has announced the full concert lineup for its third season. All shows will take place beginning at 8:00pm in JSAC's Palaia Theater. The season lineup includes Willie Nile, John Gorka, Dan Bern, Catie Curtis and Band, Stephen Kellogg, Abbie Gardner, Heather Maloney and Band, and Kim Richey. As they have done in prior years, artists from the Asbury Park music scene will open many of the shows.
Saturday, October 31st – Willie Nile (Solo Storyteller Show). In what promises to be a memorable opening night, the great Willie Nile will perform a special storytellers show at JSAC’s Palaia Theater. Robinson Treacher, an award-winning singer-songwriter, will open the evening. The first two seasons of Split Level Concerts at JSAC launched with sold-out performances, with last season’s opener selling out weeks in advance. The pairing of Willie Nile and Robinson Treacher is sure to make this year’s opening night another highly sought-after event.
Saturday, December 5th – John Gorka. Originally from New Jersey, John has been releasing critically acclaimed albums sing 1987 along with one he did with Lucy Kaplansky and Eliza Gilkyson under the name Red Horse. Many well known artists have recorded and/or performed John Gorka songs, including Mary Chapin Carpenter, Nanci Griffith, Mary Black and Maura O’Connell. John has graced the stage of Austin City Limits, Mountain Stage, etown and has appeared on CNN.
Saturday, January 9th – Dan Bern. If you must put him in a box, make sure it’s a big box! Undefinable by genre, crossing over and through folk, rock, singer-songwriter, and kids music, Dan Bern is a captivating live performer with a loyal, multi-generational following. He has written thousands of songs, released dozens of albums, and played shows across North America and Europe–from coffee shops to Carnegie Hall, and he most recently opened for The Who and Roger Daltrey. Dan’s songs have appeared in numerous films (“Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” “Get Him to the Greek” “The Bubble” “Zero Effect”) and TV shows (Amazon Prime’s award-winning kids program “The Stinky & Dirty Show”).
Saturday, February 13th – Catie Curtis and Band.For more than three decades, Catie Curtis has occupied a singular place in American songwriting. Long before authenticity became a marketing strategy, Curtis was practicing a quieter art: making songs that feel like conversations, invitations into a shared emotional space where listeners recognize themselves. Over the course of fifteen albums and thousands of performances, her career has taken her from Boston’s vibrant folk scene to stages across the country, from Carnegie Hall to the White House. Yet Curtis’s enduring appeal has never been about accolades alone. It stems from a rare ability to transform private experiences into shared ones, creating music that feels both deeply personal and universally resonant.
Saturday, March 13th – Stephen Kellogg. "I guess what I’m most proud of having done, the thing I’d want people to know about the first two decades of my career, is that I survived with my soul intact. I’ve played more than 2200 concerts, traveled Europe supporting Gregory Alan Isakov and Josh Ritter, sang duets with Adam Duritz and Rosanne Cash. I’ve sold out the 9:30 club, and performed at the Beacon Theater. I’ve made music in spite of the challenges and managed to build a life that resembles that of my listeners in all the ways that matter. I have not accomplished all that I intended for myself, but that’s why I’m playing another hand at the table. That’s the point of Keep It Up, Kid. Thanks for checking out my stuff," said Kellogg in his bio
Saturday, April 10th – Abbie Gardner. Billboard charting artist Abbie Gardner is a fiery dobro player with an infectious smile. Whether performing solo or with Red Molly, her acclaimed tales of love and loss, both gritty and sweet, are propelled by her impeccable slide guitar playing. She channels Lucinda and Bonnie, but remains pure Abbie.
Saturday, May 8th – Heather Maloney and Band. Massachusetts-based “writer song-singer” Heather Maloney found music in the midst of three years at a meditation center, honing a sound moored in days of silent reflection and reverence for storytellers like Joni, Rilke, Ken Burns, and the anonymous authors of Zen parables. While she eventually traded the quiet, structured life of a yogi for the kinetic life of a touring musician, the core of her songwriting has remained centered around same curiosity about our inner world and the desire to articulate it through storytelling.
Saturday, June 5th – Kim Richey. Kim has built a reputation as one of Americana and roots music’s most respected storytellers, known for her crystalline voice and emotionally resonant songwriting. Born in Zanesville, Ohio, Richey developed her musical voice gradually, drawing inspiration from pop, folk, and country influences before eventually making her way to Nashville. She emerged in the 1990s with a distinctive style that blended country, folk, and pop, earning critical praise for both her writing and her understated vocal delivery. Richey first gained attention as a songwriter, co-writing the hit “Nobody Wins” with Radney Foster and later writing songs recorded by artists such as Trisha Yearwood, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Brooks & Dunn. Her work with Yearwood on “Believe Me Baby (I Lied)” earned her a Grammy nomination and established her as a songwriter whose work could cross from the Nashville songwriting rooms to the top of the charts.
Similar to last season, there will be a limited number of season subscription packages available for sale for season three. A subscription package will include discounted tickets and priority seating for all eight shows listed above. Individuals who purchased subscription packages for season two will be given first priority to purchase subscriptions for the upcoming season. Single show general admission tickets and any remaining subscription packages will go on sale Tuesday, June 23rd at 10:00am.
The partnership between Split Level Concerts and JSAC brings critically acclaimed national and international touring Americana and contemporary folk musicians to the Jersey Shore. Artists from the Asbury Park music scene will open many of the shows and will be announced in the coming weeks.
Jeanne Power-Galli, Creative Director of JSAC stated, “The second season of Split Level Concerts at JSAC was phenomenal. We built on the success of season one, averaging a larger crowd size per show, ultimately drawing more people to JSAC to learn what we’re all about.”
In addition to live music, JSAC offers a wide variety of programming, including visual arts, wellness, dance, theater, and comedy. Power-Galli added, “Mark Klemow, the founder of Split Level Concerts, has put together another terrific lineup of artists for our third season. We can hardly wait to present these great performers to our growing audience. It will be a wonderful season!”
Split Level Concerts began as a house concert series in 2000 and grew to eventually present shows at the JCC of Central NJ in Scotch Plains and the Union County Performing Arts Center in Rahway before moving to the Jersey Shore Arts Center in 2024. The series has presented approximately 140 shows since its inception.
“Over the course of our second season at JSAC I got the distinct feeling that we are really beginning to build something significant for Ocean Grove and its surrounding communities. Patrons are returning again and again, even if they are unfamiliar with the artists we are presenting. They repeatedly tell me that they love what we’re doing, and that gives me the deepest level of satisfaction,” said Klemow. “My excitement for season three is through the roof, as we’ll be welcoming back a couple of long-time friends of the series alongside some performers I’m thrilled to be presenting for the first time.”
Net ticket proceeds from all Split Level concerts support the programming and arts education offered by the Jersey Shore Arts Center, a non-profit organization serving Ocean Grove and its surrounding areas. The second season of the series netted approximately $10,000, money that the Arts Center will utilize to help pay for the presentation of additional arts programs and improvements to its historic building.
In addition, 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. During the shows that made up season two, the volunteers from MOAM collected nearly $4,000 in cash donations and 587 pounds of non-perishable food items to benefit Fulfill (formerly the Food Bank of Monmouth & Ocean County). For season three, MOAM has again chosen Fulfill to be the beneficiary of their fundraising efforts.
The Jersey Shore Arts Center is located at 66 South Main Street in Ocean Grove.
