Jersey natives Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes hit Newton

NEWTON — Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes return to The Newton Theatre on Saturday, Nov. 22 at 8 p.m.

Johnny Lyon, a gregarious frontman of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, has a horn-driven sound rooted in R&B, Soul, Funk, Jazz and Blues.

“We’ll play anywhere they’ll have us,” says the 63-year-old Lyon. “The more places, the better. After all these years it’s still something I desperately want to do. You want to keep having fun.”

Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes were the second band after Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band to emerge from the New Jersey shore scene, and though they carried over a significant influence (and some key personnel) from their predecessors, they were a more generic white R&B horn band in the Memphis Stax Records tradition. The group was came together in 1974 by singer John Lyon and guitarist/songwriter "Miami" Steve Van Zandt. Van Zandt decamped for the E Street Band in 1975, but he continued to direct the Jukes, managing them, writing their songs, and producing their records.

The group signed to Epic Records and released "I Don't Want to Go Home" in 1976, which featured songwriting by Springsteen and cameos by Ronnie Spector and Lee Dorsey. The Van Zandt-written song "I Don’t Want To Go Home" became Southside’s signature song, an mixture of horn-based melodic riffs and sentimental lyrics.

In 1982 Rolling Stone Magazine voted "Hearts of Stone" among the top 100 albums of the 1970s and 1980s.

"I'll stack my group against any group out there," Johnny says. "We enjoy playing, and the audience enjoys having a good time. Music is a shared emotion. We distill it down to that."

Tickets for Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes will be $59 for premium seating, $49 for orchestra and $39 for balcony. Purchase tickets by visiting www.thenewtontheatre.com or contact the box office at 973-383-3700.

The historic Newton Theatre, located at 234 Spring Street in Newton.