Tune In, Turn On
By Doug Deutsch
What we’ve observed since moving back to Atlantic City is that everybody at the Jersey Shore gets excited when spring comes around, signaling the busy summer season isn’t far behind.
What excites us most is knowing we’ll be getting calls and emails from Carmen and Nancy Marotta announcing not only their annual Mardi Gras in AC Summer Concert Series at Kennedy Plaza across from Boardwalk Hall, but also their 2024 AtlantiCare Concerts on the Beach in Somers Point, which take place at Bay Avenue on the beach in Somers Point. All shows are at 7 p.m. on Friday nights and free to all ages.
“We’ll start nearly three months from now (June 14) and that won’t be long,” Carmen Marotta told me during one of our recent music chats.
“We burst onto the South Jersey concert scene that night when we host emerging roots-rock Americana artists, Bywater Call, and bring their Canadian Big Band and fresh Southern soul to start our season out with a bang. They’ve been creating tremendous excitement at concert series and festivals around the world, and they’ll be premiering at the Jersey Shore right here (at our AtlantiCare Concerts on the Beach Series),” said Carmen.
Before we get to the big-name acts performing at AtlantiCare Concerts on the Beach in Somers Point for the upcoming season, Carmen also informed us he’s reached an agreement to bring a big-name blues-roots female guitarist to the Boardwalk for the Mardi Gras in AC shows in August (we’re sworn to secrecy here and unable to say who just yet; certain agreements, etc. have to be signed before this show can go public). Trust me on this one and save the date, Aug. 28, at Kennedy Plaza.
Back to the AtlantiCare series. After Bywater Call, said Carmen, “our Jersey Shore Rock ‘n’ Soul Guitar Hero will lead one of the greatest bands in the entire tri-state area, The Billy Walton Band with Destinee Monroe, to celebrate the start of summer on June 21.
“Then,” Marotta continued, “it will be everybody’s favorite party-dance band doing rock ‘n’ roll, disco, dance, and plenty of today’s funky sounds when the entertaining, tight, and highly professional Dane Anthony Band rocks the beach on Friday, June 28.”
Things only heat up from there with a July 4 performance by John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band (performing the legacy of “Eddie and the Cruisers.”
“The original soundtrack these artists wrote and recorded include the huge hits ‘Dark Side,’ ‘Tender Years,’ and all the songs that made the ‘Eddie and the Cruisers’ movie famous,” Marotta added. Expect “fireworks everywhere and Cruisers songs in the air!”
New Orleans/Mardi Gras lovers (Colleen Nola, hello!) won’t want to miss “one of the world’s greatest Cajun fiddlers and Bourbon Street entertainers, Waylon Thibodeaux, starring with New Orleans-based piano professor, Ben Levin, and his band on July 5,” said Marotta (local guitar virtuoso Danny Eyer opens).
Thibodeaux, Levin and Eyer also perform Monday, July 8, for the Tony Mart’s Presents Jersey Gumbo Cook Off & Music Festival, at the cool bayside tiki bar, The Point.
July 12 sees a female-fronted doubleheader of highly regarded roots vocalist Dana Fuchs, and Patty Balbo’s tribute to the women of rock ‘n’ roll from the ’60s to today. July 19 is a blues music lover’s dream show with the Phantom Blues Band (who’ve played with everyone from Taj Mahal and Bonnie Raitt to B.B. King), along with Chicago blues vocal legend Curtis Salgado, plus violinist Heather “Lil Mama” Hardy.
July 26 is a big show with the Last Waltz Tribute “featuring great national headliners from New Orleans and around the world in a musical rendition of the Martin Scorsese film, ‘The Last Waltz,’ which captured the final concert by The Band after they left Tony Mart’s in Somers Point in 1965 to perform for the final time with Bob Dylan on Thanksgiving 1976,” said Marotta.
The all-star performers that night: Dave Malone, Honey Island Swamp Band, Bonerama’s Mark Mullins, harpist-vocalist Johnny Sansone (whose set at Kennedy Plaza last summer was memorably good), and respected blues guitar veteran Steady Rollin’ Bob Margolin. They’ll perform music from the movie by Van Morrison, Neil Young, Eric Clapton and more.
Aug. 2 sees multiple-Grammy-winning producer/musician Tom Hambridge “performing the music he wrote and produced for artists like Susan Tedeschi, Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top and Buddy Guy, to name a few,” said Marotta, with Tuscon-based singer/songwriter Kevin Pakulis and band, plus outlaw country music playin’ violinist, Heather ‘Lil’ Mama Hardy.
Reggae greats Third World (“Now That We Found Love,” “96 Degrees In The Shade”) play Aug. 9. On Aug. 16, it’s ’70s Night with Wildflower, “a funky disco party band with two members that actually played at Tony Mart’s,” said Marotta, with popular Bruce Springsteen tribute band, The E Street Shuffle, “who tore it up on the beach in 2023.”
Aug. 30 (Labor Day weekend) sees West Coast-based blues guitarist/vocalist – and one of the nicest guys in the biz, (my words here) – Tommy Castro and the Painkillers, back again to play in Somers Point this summer.
But wait, there’s more, right, Carmen?
“As it is appropriate the summer season ends on a ‘Good Old Days’ weekend. On Sept. 6 we’ll be throwing a colossal rock ‘n’ roll party with both the Tony Mart’s All-Stars and popular area recording artists and rock ‘n’ roll party band, Red,” said Marotta. “This will be a dance party marathon of over three hours of music,” he added.
It’s different every concert, but the shows are always great.
“Celebrate the Jersey Shore’s good times together with family and friends. Fourteen weeks of the finest and diverse, free entertainment all summer long – the best time of your life,” Marotta concluded.
Count us in!
Doug is the owner/operator of Doug Deutsch Publicity Services, which since 1995 has been servicing nationally touring acts, and working record release campaigns for clients. Doug also hàs experience writing for the one time shore-based weekly publication, Whoot! He also was a team member with Chip Braymes Advertising. Doug loves bicycling and aspires to bring the Blues to Atlantic City. He can be reached at ShoreLocalDoug@gmail.com and www.facebook.com/dougdeutschpublicity.
