Kelsey Blackstone’s relationship with music has spanned her entire life. From early piano lessons and cello rehearsals to a cross-country move from Boston, Massachusetts, to Nashville, Tennessee, music has remained both her anchor and her ambition. “I started classical piano when I was 5 years old,” she says. “I always loved performing—I always loved being on stage and making the music.

On the outside, Kiersten Blue is exactly what her name suggests: blue hair, melancholic lyrics, and even a single appropriately titled “Blue.” On the inside, though, Kiersten is overcome by an unmistakable drive and love for creating music. The singer is relatively new to the music world, having started during the COVID-19 pandemic almost six years ago. Inspired to pick up guitar again, Kiersten started writing music and amassed over 100 songs within her first year.

Emmalee Rainbow celebrated her 21st birthday in Las Vegas, battling a cold. She commemorated this moment in her notes app, which turned into her newest single, “I’ve Had Some Wine." Rainbow, who is from Los Angeles, began her career in entertainment as a child actress, appearing in national commercials, films, and popular TV shows such as Modern Family and NCIS…

I had more than one person tell me that 2025 was a tough year for them. Whether it be socially, politically, or just several external factors that were weighing on their mind, it was not an easy year to separate the art from whatever else was going on in the world. It also doesn’t help that popular music did not reflect this. 

We are living in a period swamped with literary fiction. The stocked shelves of bookstores and BookTok doom-scrolling all point to its dominance, specifically in the cult of superiority fostered through its dry intellectual engagement riddled with irony and realism. To be a cool and well-rounded reader is to be a reader of “lit fic.” Canticle by Janet Rich Edwards is a breath of fresh air in this monogamous popular book culture.

Billy Carrión grew up in a family of singers. With his father being a salsa singer, Carrión was constantly surrounded by music; not just Latin, but a little bit of everything. This allowed him to become well-rounded, to fall in love with Jazz through passion. Jazz holds a universal conversation on the stage and is a place where Carrión feels the most understood.

Before movies ever felt like a career path, they felt like a kind of magic for Chris Messineo. Growing up, Messineo believed the people who made films lived somewhere far away on the West Coast, in a world that felt unreachable. It wasn’t until his twenties, as independent film began flourishing outside of Hollywood, that filmmaking started to feel like a possibility.

On Jan. 9, RiverJAM Music hosted yet another sold-out night as part of their Listening Room: Songs & Stories intimate concert series in Red Bank, NJ. Fronted by English singer-songwriter James Maddock, Reagan Richards and Gordon Brown of Williams Honor, and the legendary guitarist Ricky Byrd, the night was pleasantly filled with both philanthropy and original music. In true Songs & Stories fashion, the artists took turns playing songs on stage, rotating through one after the other and sharing stories and inspirations for each tune.

Ron Gallo never set out to be a musician. In fact, picking up a guitar came without much intention at all. “I can’t say there really was much of a passion to play guitar,” he admits. “I kind of just thought it was a thing I should have.” “I think the thing I was most intrigued by was writing songs,” he continued.

San Diego, known for its weather, tourist attractions, and beaches, is also the home of a vibrant and creative community: San Diego Poetry Annual.  Bill Harding, an author, novelist, and poet, started the San Diego Poetry Annual in 2005. The first publication invited poets and writers from all around San Diego, serving as a community effort to publish as many writers as possible in the annual.  

Like many musicians of his generation, Ricky Byrd’s relationship with music shifted the moment he watched The Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan Show. “There was a lot of music in my house,” Byrd recalled. “My parents were divorced at that point, so we were living with my grandparents, and there was always music playing—but it was Sinatra and stuff like that, which I did love.

The staff picks their favorite songs for November from Michael Jackson and Arlo Guthrie to Kehlani and This is Lorelei.

Uchenna Agbu wears many hats: director, writer, arts manager, HR consultant, just to name a few. But her most important hat, one that encompasses her fullest passion and career, is educator.  In 2024, Uchenna made her Broadway debut as a management fellow in the revival of Our Town while freelance directing. Most recently, she created How I Got on Broadway…

For the last decade, country duo Williams Honor has been writing and performing songs that tell stories.  Both born and raised in New Jersey, Gordon Brown and Reagan Richards knew they were songwriters from an early age and are now sharing their industry knowledge and musical expertise with a new generation of songwriters, ready to tell their own story.   Before forming the group, Brown and Richards had already put their personal stamp on the music industry, with their individual work and accolades extending into songwriting, performing, producing, and touring.

Being a musician in the digital age is challenging. Unless you’re Hannah Geller, bold and determined.   “The very first song I ever released was completely done by me, because I am such a big perfectionist," she ushered.   Geller has learned music by stepping on the nontraditional route. Drawing from music theory and music courses, she bases her music on achieving the best sound and how it can fuel her listeners. 

The Philly-based band Diet Lemon (stylized as diet lemon) is more than just an indie rock act; it’s a confessional project that balances on the motto, “fake sweet, real sour,” a phrase that cuts right to the core. “The name honestly just kind of started off as like a goof because I really like diet sodas,” began pseudonym holder Alex Spagnolia, referring to the moniker “Diet Lemon” itself.

Social media can either make or break a person. In today’s music industry, it’s become one of the most powerful tools for rising artists trying to stand out in an increasingly crowded landscape. For Nicholas Eagan, better known as No Good, social media has become both a spotlight and a battlefield. His online presence attracts just as much criticism as it does admiration.

Anthony Gualano approaches a Zoom call the same way he approaches creating music: with bright curiosity and a hunger for connection. The South Jersey native is eager to dive into conversation, sail…

Americana/punk band, Sassparilla, returns with their eighth record, Honey, I’m Using Again, on February 20, 2026. The Portland, Oregon, and Golden, Colorado, based bandmates Kevin Blackwell, Doug E…

The Devil Said Jump’s latest single, “Better Man,” starts candidly: “You say you got a boyfriend. Congradu-fucking-lations.” The rest of the song follows suit with honesty that doesn’t hold back, l…

When you meet New Jersey-born musician Alexa Tabbacchino, it’s easy to assume that she’s been a fully-formed artist her entire life. However, her path to finding her musical calling was anything bu…

On January 7, 2026, the New Jersey–based nonprofit RiverJAM Music will host its third installment of The Listening Room: Songs & Stories, an intimate evening of live music and personal storytel…

Yubiori2 is an extension of everything Japanese rock band Yubiori delivered on their debut album yubiori, only bigger. The music is louder, the horns are in your face, and lead singer Yoshiaki Tamu…

Paola Capó-García, raised in Puerto Rico with a blank journal at 14 years old, decided to write a poem to see how it felt to write poetry and what emotions she could capture. Rhyming pain with…