Sean Kiely

Sean Kiely is a folk musician, mostly acoustic but sometimes not, from Jersey City, NJ. His most recent record "Postcards of the Reckoning" was named one of the top 10 albums of 2024 by NJ.com and debuted at #15 on the FAI Folk Chart.

Kiely's lyrics "summon epiphanies and moments of clarity in the middle of storms" and his music chases beauty to unexpected yet inevitable conclusions. In February '25 Kiely opened for the legendary Richard Thompson at a sold-out White Eagle Hall in Jersey City, and performed live in-studio at WFUV. His music was recognized by the Jersey City Arts Council and NERFA. No Depression wrote that his debut album "Your Logo, My Logo is one of those sublime and unassuming efforts that sneaks up on you until you find it won’t let go."

Learn more at https://www.seankielymusic.com/

E'Lon JD

E’Lon Bruce Jordan-Dunlap a.k.a E’Lon JD is an American bass player, songwriter, performer and educator. E'Lon has performed on stages as far east as Almaty, Kazakhstan and as far west as Los Angeles, California and can be found on tour anywhere in between. His sound combines elements of soul, funk, jazz, and rock and could be described best as progressive soul, melodic driven, feel good music.

He has recorded with acts such as, Phony Ppl, and The Gregory Bros., and has shared the stage with Belá Fleck, Members of Snarky Puppy, Victor Wooten, and Weedie Braimah and the Hands of Time. He is currently the bass player in the internationally touring band Jonathan Scales Fourchestra. E'Lon JD is a musical furnace burning up stages and warming up our hearts across the globe.

Learn more at https://www.elonjd.com/

John Howie Jr.

John Howie, Jr. comes across as approachable, accommodating, confident yet humble. He’s also blessed with a natural baritone that’s perfectly suited for country music. We’re talking pure honky-tonk country. With the Two Dollar Pistols and the Rosewood Bluff, Howie writes and performs songs that require a sawdust floor, a jukebox, and a sympathetic ear. Now, with his first solo outing, he’s delivered another album that can stand alongside the greats in Ernest Tubb’s Record Shop on Broadway in Nashville.

John Howie Jr has been playing country music for 30 years, even though he never expected to be a country musician. In his teens, Howie had no interest in country music. “I thought all of that was the most ridiculous music; it just didn’t have anything to do with where I was coming from,” he has said. It took a trip to England when he was 19 to change his mind. Playing with an American-style punk rock band, Howie realised that his bandmates loved country music. He began listening to it and never looked back.

Howie grew his career with roots firmly planted in the sounds of traditional country. This is the Bakersfield sound – rough and ready outlaw music, featuring Waylon, Willie, Jessi, and Kris. It is music with rock influences, but never in doubt about its country connections. When Howie formed a band, he said his goal was “to have country musicians in this band instead of rock musicians posing as country players.” The Rosewood Bluff came some years after Howie’s first band, Two Dollar Pistols, which he formed in 1995, and after a stint playing drums with Sarah Shook’s The Disarmers. Along the way, Howie released a solo album, ‘Not Tonight’.

But it was The Rosewood Bluff that was Howie’s anchor. He has said, “It’s the only band that I’ve had or been in that I’ve considered having tattooed on myself.” The band’s current five-piece line-up features Nathan Golub on pedal steel guitar, Tim Shearer on electric guitar, Mark Connor on bass, Dave Hartman on drums, and Howie on rhythm guitar.

“The Return Of…” leads off with ‘Who Needs the Neon?’ This is real, honkytonk, bar music. It’s a song about the anaesthetic effect of the lights and sounds of a place likely called the Dew Drop Inn. It covers the downward spiral from “I’ve gone from stay-at-home to stay out all night long”. Great slide guitar, solid drums and rhythm guitar give the song just the right notes, and Howie’s baritone is perfectly pitched for the emotion of his songs. ‘Who Needs The Neon’ sets the stage for a series of breakup and broken heart songs. The next song is ‘(There Is) A Ghost In My Room’. It would be hard to find a better song about being haunted by a relationship gone bad. The balance to being unable to forget is ‘My Memory (Ain’t What It Used To Be)’, where the pain is fading and one asks “Tell me one more time/ How I wanted to die when you went away… My memory well it ain’t what it used to be”.

“The Return Of…” is really a grand tour of a slow path, from the pain of loss to seeing a hint of light at the end of the tunnel. There is a song of blind hope, ‘How Can I Make You Love Me’. There is denial: ’She’s Just Missin’ Me’. There is the need for distance in ‘Gotta Get Away’ when Howie sings “Gotta get away from you/ Gotta figure out if all the things I think about life are true”’

The lyrics are a blend of regret, exasperation, defensiveness and vulnerability, with a touch of humour. And they have the ring of truth. You can hear the pain, the confusion, the anger and sadness that occur all at once when a heart breaks. This is country music at its best, great lyrics about real life, accompanied by classic instruments and not an auto-tune in sight.

Learn more at https://www.facebook.com/johnhowiejr