Pluckin' in the Pines
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Pluckin’ in the Pines Saturday night is the time for down-home country music at Waretown’s Albert MusicHall By SUSAN BLOOM Photos by ARISTIDE ECONOMOPOULOS Long before the doors open at 6:30 p.m., a line has formed around Albert Hall in Waretown, deep in the Pinelands of South Jersey. Everyone’s getting ready to jockey for a good seat because this is Saturday night and Sat- urday night at Albert Music Hall means one thing: old-time country music. “We’re about a whole lot of warm feeling and fun,” says Elaine Everett of the Pinelands Cultural Society, which manages the music hall. “It reflects the hands-on nature and cooperation of a bunch of people getting together to have a good time, play music and pay homage to the unique heritage of the Pinelands region.” Often called “the Grand Ole Opry of New Jersey,” Albert Music Hall was designed to look “like the porch of a cabin in the woods” and is decorated with musical instruments, farm tools, vintage quilts and other period memorabilia. Tripp Horner of Toms River is picking and grinning at Albert Music Hall. “From bluegrass and country music 34 JANUARY 2013 NJ.COM/INSIDE-JERSEY NJ.COM/INSIDE-JERSEY JANUARY 2013 35 to rockabilly, there’s something for 1 11 the Albert brothers’ cabin,” says PCS everyone here,” says Albert Music president Roy Everett. Hall’s lead sound engineer Tom Rouze, The hall is located on Wells Mills 48. “The bands change every week, but Road in a town so quiet that it only it’s all about the music and it’s good recently received its own exit off the clean fun. Garden State Parkway (69), despite its “It’s the only place where musicians close proximity to the popular Shore truly play from the goodness of their destination of Long Beach Island. heart,” says the Barnegat resident and Yes, there’s a show every Saturday former theater technician. “The music night, weather permitting, except for comes from a very pure place and two weeks during the Christmas and there’s a real connection between the New Year holidays, when the building musicians and the audience. Everyone is shut down for annual maintenance. loves being here.” And, as live performances go, it has to Albert Music Hall got its start in the 2 be one of the best values in the Garden 1970s, when brothers Joe and George State. The $5 fee ($1 for children) buys Albert’s small deer hunting lodge began a three-plus-hour show featuring six to attracting musicians from throughout 12 seven bands, each playing 30-minute the Pinelands, a heavily forested area sets, and music rarely ends before 11:30 covering parts of seven southern p.m. counties. The cabin had no electricity, In addition to the onstage talent, but the coffee, homemade cake and outdoor attractions include “porch Piney spirit flowed every Saturday pickin’ ” in the adjacent 600-square- night until the wee hours. Hundreds of foot “Pickin’ Shed,” as well as jam musicians and fans converged on the 5 sessions in the parking lot that bring secluded spot to play the mandolins, professional musicians and novices fiddles, guitars, banjos, washtub basses 3 9 together. and rhythm drums unique to the Pine 7 “What you hear out there happens Barrens region and sing tunes strongly 13 spontaneously, and it’s a great cross- influenced by 1800s Irish and Welsh section of different musical genres melodies and old folk songs from the in an environment that supports British Isles. live acoustic music and encourages George Albert died in 1973, a year 8 and highlights local talent,” says before the “Sounds of the Jersey Manasquan resident Heidi Olsen, 52, Pines” moved to rented space in the lead singer and banjo player for the Waretown Auction Hall to better bluegrass band Heidi Olsen and The accommodate the large crowds and Night. the Pinelands Cultural Society started “There’s no better feeling in the charging a small admission fee. Joe world than making music with old Albert died 1987. and new friends. Albert Music Hall In January 1997, the society opened brings together like-minded people the current 6,000-square-foot, and helps people learn, Look for a 350-seat Albert Music Hall, named jam, and make musical photo gallery at nj.com/ after the brothers who inspired it. connections,” she says. inside-jersey. Since then, the hall has welcomed more I Continue on Page 78 than 250,000 visitors, and musicians 1) Co-founder Joe sale at the food booth. 4 6 10 continue to play for free, with the Albert’s washtub bass. 8) Bluegrass band $5 admission going to PCS to fund 2) Promotional buttons Timber Creek. are on display in the hall. 9) The overflow crowd maintenance of the facility and local 3) Laughter on the porch at the Pickin’ Shed stays during intermission. late into the night. student scholarships. 4) Bill Gilsenan checks 10) A steel guitar in the “We’re a historical society chartered on musicians warming Pickin’ Shed. up backstage. 11) Timber Creek on the to preserve the cultural history and 5) Rob Swain, on bass, main stage. musical legacy of South Jersey. And visiting from Alexandria, 12) Peter Borchester of Va., joins an impromptu Forked River has been Albert Hall aims to carry on the ensemble. coming to Albert Hall structure, spirit and camaraderie of 6) Cake enjoyed for years. alfresco. 13) Getting grub at the the weekly music gatherings held at 7) Pie and cake are for food booth. 36 JANUARY 2013 NJ.COM/INSIDE-JERSEY NJ.COM/INSIDE-JERSEY JANUARY 2013 37 BRIDGE & TUNNEL OUR PICKS ACROSS Albert Music Hall THE HUDSON & DELAWARE FOR JANUARY I Continued from Page 37 “People show their appreciation here,” says Matt Soulful Morris, lead guitarist for the band Southern Specific, British Import a play on the Southern Pacific railroad line and “the many train references that appear in country songs.” I Alas, Beyoncé won’t MUSIC His four-man band, a regular at Albert Music Hall NYC be touring midsized New York City clubs in 2013. Luckily, we’ve since 2005, is known for its toe-tapping covers of got a reasonable facsimile tunes from country legends such as Hank Williams, coming to the East Village in January. Emeli Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis. Sandé, a singer-songwriter raised in the bucolic Scottish countryside, can’t dance “They dance in the aisles and holler requests, and like Beyoncé, but she shares more with when you go offstage, people greet you and give you the American superstar than an accent the thumbs up and tell you how much they enjoyed mark. In her native United Kingdom, Sandé is already a celebrity — “Our Version of Events,” her first album, topped the charts. you,” says Morris, 49, of Langhorne, Pa. “Heaven,” “Read All About It,” and the very Beyoncé-like “My Kind of Love” were all “There are no barriers here like at other venues— European hits. Her best track, though, is the soulful “Next to Me,” a piano-pop stomp bands come through the front door like everybody with a near-gospel chorus and a passionate lead vocal from the young singer. This else and walk through the crowd to leave. That is a voice that America ought to know better; chances are we will, so catch her in a reasonably sized theater while you can. Appearing Jan. 17 at Webster Hall (125 E. 11th intimacy with the crowd is part of what makes Albert St.) at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25. Visit websterhall.com. — Tris McCall Hall what it is — a group of people who truly love and enjoy this music in a genuine way.” desserts to finish it off. But it also shows WHILE YOU’RE VISITING I Little Josh Werner, an 18-year-old guitar virtuoso from Italy might be smaller than ever, but it will you how something as seemingly simple never disappear if Rich Torrisi and Mario as scrambled eggs can be cooked with Forked River, has played alongside musicians far Carbone have anything to say about it. enough care to legitimately share the older than himself in more than 300 shows. “Getting Their Torrisi Italian Specialties brings table with an elegant duck rillette. Down the audience engaged means so much to us and we excitement to Mulberry Street with its the street at their other restaurant, Parm, casual take on Italian fine dining. For $75, they flip the script by taking the simplest feed off that,” he says. the seven-course prix fixe gives you the of Italian-American fare — chicken parm, “I’ve been coming here for 12 years, two or full grandmother treatment: appetizers fried calamari, baked ziti — and making it three times a month,” says Anna Mae Moore seem special and revered. Visit torrisinyc. for the table, house-made pasta, a choice of Tuckerton. “I love all the country music, the of meat or fish and an assortment of com and parmnyc.com. — Brian Stitt different instruments and the songs, and everyone is so friendly.” Woodbridge resident Kay Majek, 69, who xx Marks the Mix regularly hits the country music circuit in Branson, MUSIC I Jamie xx handles samples and Mo., also finds Albert Music Hall appealing. “It’s wisps of melody like a scientist just so wonderful to see the people here with all of handling trace amounts of a PHILLY their musical talents. This place is really something dangerous chemical. When he drops them into his tracks, special,” she says.