By: Shane Bagot, Follow South Jersey Community Journalist
WARETOWN, NJ – After a 20-year hiatus, Albert Music Hall brought back their Songwriters in the Pines concert series in 2025. This free-to-attend series spoke to the essence of what started the venue in the first place: original songwriting and capturing the Pine Barrens culture.
Songwriters in the Pines is a chance to give local songwriters a stage to perform and show off their talent. What makes it unique among their other shows is the influence of the Pine Barrens.
The founding members would call them “homespun songs.” They mainly try to find musicians who tell stories about the Pine Barrens and or South Jersey.
The idea to bring back this series was from exploring the archives of the music hall. In it, Chrissy and Danielle Marrone, current corresponding secretary and president, found newspaper articles and flyers promoting the Songwriters in the Pines concert series. At the time, they were looking to bring back some of the old influence of the music halls’ past.
“We wanted to get back to our roots. But more importantly, we wanted to give songwriters that chance to perform in something that’s not a bar,” said Danielle Marrone.
While a lot of the history is still a bit grey as they go through the archives, Danielle Marrone has said it started in the late 1990s. A lot of members of the hall were songwriters around then, and they started it to celebrate local original music and its legacy.
When it first started, the event was popular and a huge point of the music halls’ draw. However, as time passed, not enough people were supporting the event. The series eventually failed, and the hall went back to regular scheduled shows. The last of the Songwriters in the Pines events happened in 2004.
Danielle Marrone is active in the music community. Over the last few years, she has seen a lot of talent go unnoticed. Not all of these musicians fit the exact feel of Albert Music Hall, with the growing idea of wanting to hear something different and to platform these new musicians. The decision was final to bring back the series.
“Let people hear this original music,” Marrone said. “So maybe, we have the next Van Morrison, or the next Jim Croce. Maybe we have the next one, and they just need a little push.”
As part of its 50th anniversary celebration, the Songwriters in the Pines was officially brought back on Nov. 17, 2024. It has gotten great attention and support since. The audience has enjoyed hearing new and different music. They are now expanding it to three of them a year.
The hall just had its most recent concert series on March 29. One of the performers was the Mike Monterey Band. A group that plays a mix of Americana, rock, with a mix of folk, and soul. They are not new to Albert Hall as they have been performing there for four years now, after being invited by the old venue runners.
At the time they started playing at the hall, there were not many other acts doing original music. They were one of the few acts still doing it, which inspired Marrone to have them perform at the revival concert series.
They enjoy the attentiveness of the audience and the memorable performances they can put on at the hall. This opportunity to be highlighted as one original songwriters at the hall was appealing to Mike and the band.
“I think it was cool because this was more like what I was saying, built around the idea of songwriters, rather than just the regular Albert Hall entertainment stuff in the past. So it was people who were coming there with the expectation of hearing people’s original works that they wrote,” said Monterey.
Marrone and the rest of the team are happy to be going back to their roots, to preserve the heritage and bring it to another generation who might not have experienced it. To put on for the songwriters of today as someone did for songwriters 20 years ago.
“New Jersey has some of the best musicians and songwriters around. We just want to give them a home in South Jersey in our little corner of New Jersey. Expose the people down here to that music. It’s definitely a renaissance for songwriting in New Jersey,” said Marrone.
Albert Music Hall and Pinelands Cultural Society is located at 131 Wells Mills Road in Waretown, NJ.
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