Saturday June 29th 4PM

The ninth annual Summer Concerts Series opens June 29 with a double-header.

AJ Croix is a genre-crossing singer, songwriter, and guitar picker with a love for music that started when he was a young child. He was exposed to a wide variety of music and artists that helped to mold him. Croix and company effortlessly deliver honest storytelling lyrics with soulful yet harder edged melodies. 

Joe Cirotti Trio fuses their multi-instrumentalist upbringings with a passion for the roots of American folk, jazz, country, and bluegrass. Formed in 2015, the current line-up of Joe Cirotti: guitar, Pete Lister: upright bass, and Timmy Coyle: mandolin and guitar, continues to craft a sound steeped in tradition yet infused with modern twists. They find common musical ground in influences like Doc Watson, Tony Rice, and Garcia/Grisman, but also as diverse as Django Reinhardt, Pink Floyd, and Van Halen. This stirs up a one-of-a-kind blend of Americana, bluegrass, alt-country, and gypsy jazz, and acoustic pop.

The concert is made possible with generous support from the Warren County Cultural and Heritage Division of the Department of Land Preservation, a partner of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

Thanks also to Blue Ridge Lumber, Humpty Junior’s  (hospitality),
and WRNJ Radio for promotional courtesy. Sound production is by Mountain Ledge Music.

The Ramsaysburg Summer Concerts are presented by The Friends of Ramsaysburg, a group of volunteers who dedicate countless hours to produce each event.

A rock & roll lifer, the British-born singer/songwriter has been carving his path since the 1980s with a raw, soulful voice; a storyteller’s sense of narrative; and the ability to blur the lines between folk, classic pop, and rock.

Since those early days in London, James has ridden the wave of a music industry that’s ebbed, flowed, peaked, and crashed. Maddock has stayed afloat throughout the entire ride, enjoying a brush with commercial success during the late 1990s — including a major-label record deal, a Top 5 AAA radio hit, and a song placement on Dawson’s Creek — before transforming himself into an independent solo artist during the decades that followed. If you’re not familiar, you’ll find Maddock’s large catalog full of great tunes on your favorite streaming outlet. More about James Maddock…

The concert will take place outdoors in the Riverside Amphitheatre. Bring a lawn chair or blanket. Picnic tables are available.  

$10 suggested donation.  Gates open at 5 pm, music begins 6 pm.

For directions, check the map on our home page. The property address is 140 Route 46, Delaware, NJ, located at the intersection of Ramseyburg Road and Route 46, east of the village of Delaware. From Interstate Route 80, Exit 4, take Route 46 eastbound approximately 4 miles.

Returning to Ramsaysburg on Sunday July 30th, 2023 at 3pm will be Yarn, an Americana/jam/rock group with a large local following. The Brooklyn and Raleigh based band — which is currently comprised of Blake Christiana, Rod Hohl, bassist Rick Bugel, and drummer Robert Bonhomme — have made their mark, and in dealing with their emotions, scars and circumstances, they find themselves in a position to share those experiences with others who have juggled similar sentiments.

If you expect that a band that calls itself Yarn to, naturally, tend to spin a yarn or two, you’re right! “That’s what we do, we tell stories, live and in the studio, truth and fiction” singer/songwriter Blake Christiana insists. “We don’t always opt for consistency. There’s a different vibe onstage from what comes through in our recordings. There’s a difference in every show as well, you never know what you’re going to get.”

Yarn have never been content to simply ride a wave and see where it takes them. Yarn’s ability to persevere ought to come as no great surprise, especially for a band that spent two years honing their chops during a Monday night residency at the famed Kenny’s Castaway in New York’s Greenwich Village. In effect, it allowed them to rehearse onstage, mostly in front of audiences that often ranged in size from five to a hundred people on any given night. 

Indeed, the accolades piled up quickly along the way. They have landed on the Grammy ballot 4 times, garnered nods from the Americana Music Association, placed top five on both Radio and Records and the AMA album charts, garnered airplay on Sirius FM, iTunes, Pandora, CNN, and CMT, and also accorded the “Download of the Day” from Rolling Stone. Shine the Light On found shared song writing credits with John Oates (the Oates of Hall & Oates fame), and when audiences expressed their admiration, it brought the band a populist following of diehard devotees, popularly known as “the Yarmy.”

Danielia Cotton: Saturday June 17th 

Cotton’s music is a blend of rock, blues, and soul, and her powerful vocals have been compared to those of Janis Joplin and Tina Turner.

It’s telling that after so many years, the Hopewell, N.J. native—who first picked up a guitar at age 12, released her debut album in 2005 and has opened for the likes of Buddy Guy, Derek Trucks and Bon Jovi—is still looking for fresh ways to say hello to audiences. Though she’s constantly evolving as an artist, Cotton’s quick to point out that she’s always managed to remain herself.

“I still stayed true to myself because to me, I had to keep redefining success along the way and decide what it is I truly wanted,” she says. “Did I want adoration or did I want a certain level of artistry and acknowledgement from my peers versus fans? And I keep redefining and answering that question over and over again. I believe I’ve stayed true to who I was in the process, so that’s a deep thing. I went the long route, but I wouldn’t do it any other way. My first entertainment lawyer, Jaimie Roberts, always said ‘if it comes quick, it doesn’t last.’ If it’s a slow build, you’ll get there and you are much more likely to have longevity.”

Gates open 5pm, music begins at 6pm. Raindate Sunday, June 18. Suggested donation $10.