Jackson Pines

Here are some of our regional appearances for Spring and Summer, youse guys! We haven't announced everything, there will be more added in and other posters with more details. But here's where you can plan to catch us as the weather gets more and more heavenly, as we support our new record and finish a few long term musicology projects we've been running for the last few years. Also it's Bandcamp day, one of the first since Wheel dropped a few months ago, a great day to support bands you actually know. Even if it's not our record, go grab something on there today. As always, our dot com has all the details. See ya out there🌲🎻 #jacksonpines #pinebarrensfolkmusic

Our new album Wheel came out last Friday, the same night we played The Stone Pony with the mighty Ocean Avenue Stompers and friends. 11 original songs, written by me and James over the last few years. This is the best we've felt about anything we've ever made. You can order a CD, come get one at a show, or stream it anywhere you can imagine (some are much better than others). Thanks so much to the team for working on this with us over the last few years with humbling spirit and skill. And thank you to our families for the love and support, helping us our whole lives and every day. Wheel's here, give it a spin. Joe Makoviecki: Vocals, Acoustic guitar, Electric guitar, Harmonica James Black: Stand-up bass, Electric bass, Electric guitar Cranston Dean: Drums, Vocals, Piano James Herdman: Violin Tyler Sarfert: Mixing, Engineering on 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, and 11, Synthesizer At Tribl /The Lumberyard, Hammonton, NJ Dana Yurcisin: Mastering The Phantom: Engineering on 1, 3, 5, and 9 at The Boghouse, Jackson, NJ "Evergreen" Julia DiGrazia: Violin, Vocals "Open Up The Door" Scott Grimaldi: Horn arrangement, Tenor & Baritone Saxophones Matt Bilyk: Trombone Marty Bound: Trumpet Joseph DeMaio: Horn engineering at Shorefire Studios, Long Branch, NJ "Hammer" Scott Grimaldi: Baritone Saxophone Cover Art: Sewn by Denise Costello Photograph: Michael Kravetsky Only One On The Mountain Records F. Applegate (BMI) ©2026 #jacksonpines #wheel

"The Unquiet Grave" - Live in the Pine Barrens. Filmed by @oakleafmedia , commissioned by the Ocean County Cultural and Heritage Committee. This very old ballad (Child Ballad 78, Roud 51) has been sung in England and Scotland for roughly 600 years, and in America for perhaps 300. The Clevenger, Britton, and Grant families of the Pine Barrens of NJ all learned this song from their families through oral tradition and sang it to folklorists in the 1930's. They all remembered it a different way. Here's how we do it these days. #jacksonpines #folksongs #ballads #childballads #folkmusic #pinebarrens #nj #folk #standupbass #flute #mandolin #fieldrecording

I cried when I saw the sign for that lost dog #kerosene

contrast between the drab songwriter and the burgeoning spring palette #millennialselfie

#kaleidoscope @cranstondean on piano

Next up! Don't miss this one🌲🎻

Fieldwork for the Pine Barrens Folk Music Oral Histories concluded yesterday at United Methodist Church of Warren Grove, nestled in the Pines. Their new pastor Mike Ahearn studied theology so he could keep the doors of this historic church open and rebuild its congregation. For our purposes, he's also an excellent songwriter, bayman, and was a member of Merce Ridgway's Pinehawkers throughout the 1980's. His song "Good To Be Back Home" is featured on their 1985 record "Songs of the Jersey Pines and Shore" (Marimac Records). We recorded an oral history interview about his life growing up in the Pine Barrens, his musical and songwriting journey, and knowing Merce Ridgway and the founding generation of Albert Music Hall musicians. Then he recorded a few of the songs he spoke about, and we even cut a take of "Good To Be Back Home," right there in the church. Thanks, Mike! The complete set of ten interviews with supplemental materials will be archived and accessible in late Spring, thanks to the Perkins Center for the Arts and the NJ State Council on the Arts. #pinebarrensfolkmusic #pinebarrensfolkmusicoralhistories #folkmusic

Episode 20, coming in with a full head of steam. Pete Seeger live in Sweden, a deluge of Robert Palmer's early work, some new singles we've been digging, and more. On this month's installment of "Crawford's Corner," a very rare Merce Ridgway Jr. field recording from Okinawa in 1960 featuring the virtuosic guitar stylings of Barry Hager, the Marine who taught him to fingerpick on base. Also some talk about our next concert, May sixth with some nifty bed music from The Pineconers featuring "Uncle Bill" Britton. 🌲🎻 #cassvilletavernroadhouse #radiogardenstate

@jacksonpines are the @makinwavescolumn #artist of the month at @newjerseystage 😎🌊

Sometimes The Power of Radio is undeniable. When that perfect song comes on at the exactly right moment, it's like the universe is looking itself in the mirror or something. That happened again recently on the way to a concert of ours listening to @wxpnfm , when this central song of my life came on around 12:39, thanks to the mighty Bruce Warren @somevelvetblog . It looks like I staged this, but I shit you not, I was wearing this as my load-in shirt (which I always inevitably have to change) and as I cruised through the same Pines on Magnolia Rd. where some of the songs we now sing were first written down a hundred years ago, this song came in through the stereo and tied the loose ends of my worried mind together like a suture, closing gaps like a baseball, bringing pages and themes together into a tapestry. Lyrics I've loved for years, speaking to me anew yet again paired with a place that'll always be home. And then we played a really fun show together as a band. It's only happened a few times in my life, but in a world where transcendental moments are fewer and farther, it's really nice when it does. Thanks, Bruce Warren. (and Springsteen too!) #landofhopeanddreams #wxpn

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