GIGS GIGS GIGS! OF THE WEEK:
TONIGHT (FRIDAY 9/19): Terry & Jerry in the Brown Room at Congress Hall, 7-11.
TOMORROW (SATURDAY 9/20): Terry & Jerry at PigDog, 1-5 followed by Terry & Jerry at Carney’s, 6-ish-9-ish. While I’ve worked at Carney’s several times in the past in several incarnations (duos, trios, bands), this will be my first foray with Jerry and/ or Jay and I’m excited to be back. We’ll be in the “Other Room” playing all your T&J&J favorites.
THURSDAY 9/25: Terry & Jerry at Jersey Girl Kitchen, 5-9. This will be our FINAL Thursday night Jersey Girl gig for 2025 (we play a brunch show on Friday, October 3rd, 930am-1230pm, but that’s a whole different thing…) so come on out and help us say ta ta for now to a sneaky-nice venue that borders on “hidden gem” status. Morey’s Piers is, naturally, known the world over for their amusement piers, so the culinary end tends to go under-discussed, which is a real shame, because Jersey Girl is top notch. They’ve made real inroads since bringing on famed Cape May chef Wally Jurusz in 2009 and one can only assume, with the Morey’s team behind him, he will continue to do so. (Fun Fact: Wally and I were hired by Morey’s at the same time. He has been very good at his job. I was… not. Well, I was okay. But here we are now. If only Ghost Ship had been a dinner theater an musical venue, alas…)
FRIDAY 9/26: Terry & Jerry in the Brown Room at Congress Hall. I hate comparing one gig to another because I love every place we play and wouldn’t play there if I didn’t. But the Brown Room definitely has a vibe…
SATURDAY 9/27: Terry & Jerry at PigDog, 1-5. This will be our FINAL PigDog gig for 2025. If you haven’t been yet, PigDog is a lovely little (well, little by Morey’s standards…) beachfront bar and restaurant behind the water park on Schellenger Avenue and is certainly one of the funnest venues we’ve played in quite a while. Pretty much the closest you can get to playing with your feet in the water. But bring a sweater.
SATURDAY 9/27: Terry & Jay Laboy at Anglesea Pub, 9-12. Things went well enough with Jay Laboy last week that we’re doing it again this week! Jay is a nice guy and very talented singer and guitarist who was brave enough to step into a gig with me sight unseen last weekend (we literally met at the the door as I was carrying a speaker) and we had pretty good chemistry so we’ll be playing a NUMBER of gigs this fall and winter. I’d love to bring Jay on as my full-time side piece but he’s moving to Alaska(!) at the end of the year. So keep an eye out for him on Naked & Afriad or Deadliest Catch or whatever the fuck…
OTHER STUFF OF THE WEEK:
I don’t have much in the way of notes this week, so… I’ll give you what I have and hopefully it adds up to 1500 words or so. Let’s find out, shall we?
LYRICS OF THE WEEK:
During the classic Brooks & Dunn song “Red Dirt Road” last weekend, Jerry sang “Wed dirt road” and boy did I have fun roasting him for the rest of the afternoon. From singing “Wed, wed, wine” into his ear as he tried to play guitar solos to quoting the entire “Mawwiage, is what bwings us togevver today…” monologue from The Princess Bride. We laughed and laughed. Okay, I laughed.
COMPLETE AND UTTER BULLSHIT OF THE WEEK:
I love Billy Joel. You love Billy Joel. We all love Billy Joel. I wish nothing but the best for Billy Joel as he battles his brain affliction. But I finally got around to finishing the (otherwise excellent) HBO documentary about my favorite musician and he, in the year of our lord two- thousand and twenty- five, trotted out the erroneous, widely debunked and overall super-gross “fine people on both sides” bullshit hoax about Donald Trump. A lot of people don’t like Trump. I get it. I really do. But he does not have the power to make you stupid. That lies within.
SHITTY APP “UPGRADE” OF THE WEEK:
This will mean nothing to anyone who doesn’t work for Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic or Athleta, but the recent switch from Workday to UKG is a total nightmare… (deep sigh) It feels good to get that off my chest.
SHOULD I OR SHOULDN’T I? OF THE WEEK:
Even though I am one of the world’s great yet undiscovered actors, I am not much of a drama queen (I can hear Jerry Kolber laughing in the distance…). So I promise I’m not trying to make a big deal out of this, but I’m 95% sure I’ll be shutting down The Undertow at the end of the year, barring a huge influx of paid subscribers, which is possible, I suppose… can anyone suggest ways for me to go viral that don’t include politics or nudity? (And I’m flexible on the nudity… if you’ve seen Killing Mary Sue now available for free on Amazon Prime, you know what I’m talking about… ) Anyway, my point, and I do have one, is this; I can shut it down for good and we’ll all forget about it in 6-8 weeks (okay, 6-8 hours), or I can leave the site alive, keep collecting your hard-earned money, and post every once in a while. I mean, I know that’s already what I kind of do, but this would be even more every once in a while…
Either way, the important thing is; I lasted longer than Exit Zero Filling Station…
SHAMELESS PLUG OF THE WEEK:
If you and/ or your business would like to sponsor the Stockton University dance team, of which my talented son Jackson is a member, please reach out to stocktonudteam@gmail.com. There are several levels of sponsorship available from $100-$500 for your name and/ or logo to go on their t-shirts.
I told him that email address looked an awful lot like Stockton NUDE team and he did not find that very funny. Jackson is very talented but very serious. You all see it, right? Anyway, give them some money. Checks are due by 10/1. For fun, ask Jackson to come get them personally. He’ll like that.
And here come the reader comments to bail me out this week!
READER COMMENTS HERE TO BAIL ME OUT OF THE WEEK:
Nicole Coyle: music is part of the solution....keep it going terry. ed’s note: This is in response to my paragraph on the death of Charlie Kirk and the social media firestorm surrounding it. I have taken a very simple approach; if you anger me, I cut you off. No replies no comments, no suggestion that maybe it’s not a great idea to display your lack of humanity to the whole, just cutting off. This has included a few unfollows, a lot of unfriending and (so far) one firing. I’m just not having that energy around me. And I will keep going, Nicole. I can’t do much, but I can do that.
Nicole Coyle II: i think you should bring the terry o'ke tshirts back.... we should have gotten them back in the day, that guy is truly a local legend and perhaps you jumpstarted bridget's career. ed’s note: I 100% started Bridget’s career! No ifs ands or buts! Lol… but I hope she does more with hers than I did with mine. I mean, mine is fine. Jeez… why do I make everything about me in this column I write for myself and 19 of my closest friends? The Terry O’ke t-shirt was, indeed, for a time, a Cape May cultural icon. But rest assured; if you ever see me hosting karaoke for a living again, know that I am but one desperate step away from starting an OnlyFans… (for you old heads, OnlyFans is where Instagram girls go to sell picutres of their buttholes.)
Randy Redelico via Wendy Redelico: Randy said you looked like you’ve lost a lot of weight! ed’s note: And THAT, my friends, is why the Redelicos are OG Terry stans. Bestest buds since 2005 and the dawn of Terry O’ke! Also, if you’re reading this far, please send Wendy a good thought on the recent passing of her dad. He led a long, full life but it still sucks. Wendy, let me just say, I am jealous of you in the best way possible for all the time you had with him.
David Miller: As much as Terry sounds like James Taylor, he really sounds like Van Morrison! Michele and I enjoyed you at the Brown Room last night. ed’s note: The ever-present, Q-tip weilding, heavy-drinking always amiable David Miller and his “we don’t need no piece of paper from the state!” not-wife wife, shared some kind words at the Brown Room last Friday, as they are wont to do. Some combination of Terry & Jerry & Jay will be there almost every weekend until the end of the year. Some Friday nights, a bunch of Saturday afternoons. Will keep you posted. And Dave is not wrong. While I don’t necessarily TRY to sound like Van Morrison, my years of drinking whiskey and being Irish just can’t be repressed…922 days by the way.
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