This song/video—“Jersey For Mental Health”—was written, recorded and filmed in Union County to raise awareness and funds for the Mental Health Association of New Jersey in Springfield. With May being Mental Health Awareness Month, 73 singers and rappers who each wrote their own lyrics convened with 27 photographers, videographers and others in supportive roles.

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (One Center Street, Newark) has announced its 2024-2025 classical music season.

Memorial Park in Maplewood of Essex County will turn into the annual event known as Maplewoodstock again for the 20th time on July 13 and 14. This event is FREE. Complete with food venders, a beer garden and a “Kid Zone,” the schedule provides a multi-genre experience for every taste.

The new Bon Jovi ‘Forever’ album lands June 7 but “Legendary,” its first single, is out now. The album is the iconic band’s 16th studio release in 41 years (they formed in Sayreville, Middlesex County, in 1983). Longtime members Tico Torres and David Bryan are intact. Guitarist Phil X replaced Richie Sambora. Bassist Hugh McDonald replaced Alec John Such who died in 2022.

Bon Jovi’s in the air these days. Between their 40th Anniversary, the four-part Hulu docu-series currently streaming (‘Thank You Good Night: The Bon Jovi Story’), and the new Forever album due June 7, Jon and the boys are experiencing one of those late-career renaissance moments few actually get to achieve. Now comes news that one of the their most beloved tunes, “Wanted Dead Or Alive,” the third single off their 1986 third album, ‘Slippery When Wet,’ has been covered and revitalized by Florida band Under Black Sky.

On May 19, the 2024 “Rock For Ronnie: Year of the Dragon” Concert Celebration will honor legendary metal icon Ronnie James Dio and benefit The Ronnie James Dio Stand Up & Shout Cancer Fund. Dio—the captivating lead singer for Elf, Rainbow, Heaven & Hell and Black Sabbath—lost his battle against gastric cancer in 2010 at the age of 67. The seven-hour event will be hosted by SiriusXM Radio host Eddie Trunk from Madison in Morris County.

The Pride of Bayonne, Zakk Wylde, will join Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Kingfish Ingram, Eric Johnson, Samantha Fish, Dweezil Zappa, Taj Mahal, Noah Hunt, Stanley Jordan, Ally Venable and other artists at the 2024 “Experience Hendrix” tour.

Bettye LaVette—while on the road—took a moment to field a few questions about getting a call to open for the Stones June 27 at Soldier Field in Chicago. “I am very excited,” the Essex County resident exclaimed. “They are my contemporaries. In fact, my first single came out in 1962 before their first record. Like I’ve said, ‘I’ve been waiting for them to call for sixty years. They finally found my number!”

There’s rage in Kanak singer/songwriter Tom Kanach’s every facial tic in the Asbury Park band’s new “Without A Clue” song. Whoever he’s singing it to must’ve really done a job on him.

They don’t mind being labeled “pop.” Maybe because that’s exactly what they are. Propulsive, bouncy, upbeat, energetic without being hard or heavy, Sara, Stephen and Cynthia—originally from Long Branch but now based in Asbury Park—will have their Combustible Gems out May 17 on Slumberland Records. In the meantime, they’ve released the first single, “Bright Happy Girls.”

Kool & The Gang (Jersey City), Dionne Warwick (East Orange) and Mary J. Blige (Saddle River) will be feted at the 2024 Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony October 19 at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland: Kool and Blige in the Performer Category, Warwick winning the “Musical Excellence” Award.

The term “genius” is tossed around pretty frequently these days. Yet a true genius either invents his own genre like Bill Monroe (bluegrass) or furthers an existing genre into the future by making it palatable again but with a new personal touch so that it is forever irrevocably altered. Guitarist Stephane Wrembel is in the latter category. The Maplewood resident has fully inhabited the gypsy-jazz aesthetic of Django Reinhardt [1910-1953] to the point where he is, indeed, the living personification of Gypsy Jazz.

When Jersey Girl Debbie Harry wrote “Union City Blue” with her British bassist Nigel Harrison for Blondie’s 1979 ‘Eat To The Beat’ album, she must have been thinking of that Hudson County town. The following year Harry starred as neglected wife Lillian in the 1980 film ‘Union City.’ Enter Philadelphia band Soraia whose lead singer ZouZou has captured the nerve, balls and aggression of the original while adding her own flair.

Summer just got louder. The Camden County 2024 Summer Parks Concert Series has been announced with concerts in three locations. The “Sunset Jazz Series” at the Camden Waterfront’s Roland Traynor River Stage will present shows every Monday at 8:00 p.m. starting June 3 with singer-songwriter-bassist Esperanza Spalding.

A flood damaged one of the Jersey Shore’s many venues last September and now, the new owners of House Of Independents have announced its doors will reopen in the summer. Fourteen shows have been set so far starting June 9 in the afternoon with “The Latin Social,” a party with live performances and a DJ providing spins for salsa dance lessons.

He came out of East Brunswick, settled in Asbury Park, and led his band, The Seventh Son, for a 12-year run as one of the area’s most prized possessions. He used to dabble in post-punk chaos but has streamlined his hardcore tendencies on the new album, ‘Another Deadbeat Summer,’ out June 14, with its already-out “Empty Passenger Seats” single.

Greg Kennelty, from Flemington in Hunterdon County, is something of an archeologist. He extracts rare metallic artifacts from the dustbin of time, polishes them off, and releases them on his new Embalmer Records label.

Fresh on the heels of legendary Teaneck bassist Rufus Reid, 80, receiving the Wharton Arts Lifetime Achievement Award (see 2/29/24 news section), he’s shown up on the new Nick Finzer album, ‘Legacy: A Centennial Celebration of JJ Johnson’ on the Outside In Music label, released April 5.

In the 1980s, deep within Bergen County, in a small town called Demarest, a producer-composer/musician/filmmaker called Kramer founded his Shimmy-Disc label where esoterica flourished. Illinois producer-composer-guitarist Mark Nelson records as Pan American. The two have teamed up to release their ‘Reverberations of Non-Stop Traffic on Redding Road’ album. The first single is “Floating Epitaph.”

What other town hosts an all-summer FREE concert series? You’ve got to hand it to Woodbridge (“A Community Committed To The Arts”) and Mayor John E. McCormac. From oldies, country and classic rock to folk, jazz, Americana and worldbeat, you’ll hear it all this summer at various locations in town every Sunday through Thursday starting June 12.