SONiA of disappear fear Plays Light of Day Fest in Asbury Park

On the weekend of January 17-18, lesbian rocker SONiA and her legendary band disappear fear will head to Asbury Park, New Jersey, to perform at the Light of Day Festival. Her tour will also take her to gigs in Brooklyn, as well as Germany and Israel, ending in Australia and New Zealand.

"This year I'm looking forward to learning more Hebrew, raising Wally [her puppy] and breathing life into a musical that I co-wrote with Jody Nusholtz," wrote SONiA. "I look forward to catching up with you (& you & you) at a concert... Once again we are planning on ending the year in Australia at Woodford, so i hope that becomes real. Will be awesome to re-connect with our friends in OZ and NZ. In the meantime there is Germany and Israel and possibly the UK."

The Light of Day Festival is a fundraiser for patients suffering from Parkinson's disease and other related neuromuscular illnesses. Organizers hope to raise half a million dollars at this 15th anniversary edition of the concert, topping their record $425,000 raised last year, to bring the total above $3 million.

This year's Festival includes a historical, one-of-a-kind art exhibit highlighting the legacy of Asbury Park's west Side African-American music scene, from Count Basie to Billy Brown, at Heaven Art Gallery on the town's hip Cookman Avenue.

Presented by the Asbury Park Historical Society and Classic Urban Harmony LLC, in conjunction with the Light of Day Foundation and Monmouth University Center for the Arts, the exhibit contains scores of rare photographs, plus phonograph records, posters, sheet music, and other memorabilia from Asbury Park's West Side. It covers jazz, gospel and R&B music, and also highlights black radio, record labels, record stores and Springwood Avenue nightclubs and theaters.

"This is the first, and probably only, exhibit of its kind ever presented to the public," said Historical Society President Don Stine, "and I urge everyone to stop by and see an important part of Asbury Park's rich musical heritage that is often overlooked."

Music historians Charlie and Pam Horner of the Asbury Park Historical Society, who designed and assembled the exhibit, point out that the West Side music scene from 1910 to 1970 laid the groundwork as a major influence on Asbury's rock music of the 1970s and beyond.

"Springwood Avenue was the place to go for the area's hippest, cutting edge music," said Horner. "From jazz to R&B and their roots in gospel music, this 10-block area had it all. West Side music touched the lives of Count Basie and Duke Ellington as well as Lenny Welch, Billy Brown and Clarence Clemons. Springwood Avenue clubs and musicians introduced black music to countless shore area performers."

The exhibit will run through January 19, MLK day, in tandem with the Light of Day Winterfest 2015 concert. SONiA will perform live at this event at 11 p.m. at The Saint in Asbury Park, saying, "this is going to be with my DF band and we gonna rock!"

Upcoming gigs include a January 18 performance at New York City venue The Living Room with Greg Trooper and Buddy Mondlock. She'll follow that with NAMMs show on Thursday, January 23-25 in Anaheim, California, in the Audix booth and the Shubb Booth.

She will also perform in February at the Ann Arbor folks concert series and later that month in Annapolis, MD, with Angie Miller and Howard Markman, before heading to Minneapolis to play at the Woody Guthrie Center Theatre.

On March 6, she'll perform at Dallas venue Uncle Calvin's Coffeehouse. And on March 7, she'll be back in New York City for a gig at the People's Voice Caf� at 40 E. 35th Street.

"I hope your year is one of joy and deep understanding... love to you from our family to yours," said SONiA.