The Saint has been presenting live music in Asbury Park for 25 years<\/p>\n Scott Stamper, owner of The Saint music venue in Asbury Park, is celebrating 25 years of presenting live music at his club<\/p>\n Doug Hood, Asbury Park Press<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/media-video><\/div>\n S0ulfood, aka Aziz Finney of Cliffwood Beach, has a song — and a poem — for you.<\/p>\n Finney’s nominated in the Spoken Word and Soul\/R&B Artist of the Year categories at the renewed Asbury Music Awards<\/a>, which returns Friday, Feb. 20 at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park<\/a>.<\/p>\n S0ulfood will perform at the ceremony on Friday.<\/p>\n \u201cI’m filled with wonder — I feel like a little kid,\u201d Finney said. \u201cEverybody knows the Stone Pony and it\u2019s just like such a cool thing to be able to say in my lifetime I got to touch that stage.\u201d<\/p>\n The night is hosted by funny man Taylor Allen and Des and the Swagmatics, the Gay Blades, Sunshine Spazz, Gods, Heather Mills, Blaise, Geenetica, Williams Honor, Emerson Woolf, Rachel Ana Dobken, Nick Francis, Renee Maskin, and Joseph Alton Miller will also play.<\/p>\n Awards in more than 30 categories will be given out for the musical year of 2025 and the \u201cgap years\u201d of 2019 to 2024 when there were no awards.<\/p>\n Musically, S0ulfood’s warm, soul blossomed R&B draws the listener in like a cool wind at sunset. Their 2025 single \u201cKim Marie\u201d is a mid-tempo mover that’s layered with goodness.<\/p>\n Finney\u2019s poetry stems from the moments between songs during the live show, making it a mixed media affair.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, I have trouble actually speaking during those moments,\u201d Finney said. \u201cSo instead of trying to come up with a way to connect the crowd to the song and tell what it\u2019s about, I read them a poem which allows them to have their individual experience and choose how they want to interpret the song.\u201d<\/p>\n The Asbury Music Awards were founded in 1992 as the Golden T-Birds Awards by Scott Stamper and Pere Mantas of the former city club of the same name. The awards, which bestowed honors on Jeff Buckley, Ween, Evelyn Forever, Nicole Atkins and many more, were staged in various area venues until they were halted by Stamper, then the co-owner of the Saint nightclub, in 2018 without explanation.<\/p>\n The Saint closed its doors in 2022.<\/p>\n The Asbury Park Music Foundation is overseeing the return of the awards with new categories, including Rapper of the Year and Hip-Hop Performer of the Year, to better represent the diversity of the city’s music scene.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I like seeing is that there was solid mix of artists who had been around since 2018 are still putting out new music and brand-new artists who have moved to the Asbury Park area,\u201d said Jim Lenskold of the Asbury Park Music Foundation. \u201cThat’s what keeps it exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n City music makers are artistically moving forward<\/a>, Lenskold said.<\/p>\n \u201cBlush has this nice, poppy high-energy music, you got Third from the Sun, which is a little harder but still has good grooves in it,\u201d Lenskold said. \u201cI feel like it’s a nice mix of styles.\u201d<\/p>\n City music venues, and spots that are associated with music, such as the Lakehouse Music complex and the Transparent Clinch Gallery, are providing creative outlets for musicians, and the annual Sea Hear Now festival on the city’s North Beach gives city bands stage time in front of thousands of music fans each September.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are bands getting traction outside of Asbury because of all that energy,\u201d Lenskold said. \u201cSurfing for Daisy is doing real well with their tours, Emerson Woolf is really strong in town and spreading across the East Coast, so that’s a good feel, too, A strength of Asbury Park compared to other music towns is it’s large that there’s plenty going on but it’s small enough so it’s very connected. Everyone will get to meet everyone sooner or later. That network creates opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n The Asbury Music Awards was created to be a unifying event, Mantas said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are so lucky to have a music scene that many cities and states do not have and we have to keep it alive — that was the original idea,\u201d said Mantas, now the entertainment director of the Palmetto Southern Kitchen and Low Dive venues on the city’s boardwalk. \u201cWe’re lucky. How many road bands do we see who say ‘Hey man, we got one club and we have to drive four hours to get there’. Asbury Park’s very lucky for what we have. We don’t have as many (nightclubs) as we used to, we have to work on that, but we’re lucky to have a fertile playing field and artists that these young kids can look up to. They can play in Asbury Park and they can chase their dreams because someone before them got the golden ring.\u201d<\/p>\n Go<\/strong>: Asbury Music Awards, 6:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 20, Stone Pony, 913 Ocean Ave., Asbury Park. $35. www.stoneponyonline.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nOn the Road<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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