Nuggets of New Brunswick Ready to Rock Oktoberfest on Sunday

Tony Shanahan was just wrapping up a sound check for a private gig in Montecito, an idyllic town nestled between California’s Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean where the wealthy like to frolic.

A week or so earlier, he played St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, made famous as the cavernous setting for the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana in 1981.

A few days later, he played the gardens in Alhambra in Granada in the south of Spain.

Music has taken Shanahan around the world, where he has shared the stage with many iconic rock stars over the past four decades.

On Sunday, however, he’s coming home.

Shanahan will be reuniting with bandmates Glen Burtnik and Lenny Kaye to headline the annual Oktoberfest, a fall celebration of music, food, and community held in New Brunswick’s City Center.

The Nuggets of New Brunswick, as they have rebranded themselves, will be playing music from the 1991 album they created under their previous name. With songs like “Exit Number 9” and “Riding the Avenue,” the album captures a time when New Brunswick was home to a vital music scene and places such as The Melody (pictured on the album cover) hosted bands all the time.

The band will also be playing songs from “Nuggets,” a 1972 compilation of garage bands and one-hit wonders, steeped in 1960s psychedelia and curated by Kaye.

The Nuggets of New Brunswick will be set up at the intersection of George Street, Livingston Avenue, and Memory Lane.

“I am nostalgic for New Brunswick, that’s why I’m doing this gig,” Shanahan told TAPinto New Brunswick earlier this week during a phone interview. "A lot of my roots, where I came from, the bands I played in, the dreams you have as a kid, I still think about. What I do and how much I love what I do – I don’t really know much more in life. Music, cooking, and baking. It’s kind of a good life for me. But my roots are in New Brunswick.”

Modern-day New Brunswick affords Shanahan the opportunity to meet friends for dinner at some of his favorite restaurants, like Salt or Steakhouse 85.

But, man, does he miss the New Brunswick of his youth in the 1970s and 80s, when he could bop into mom-and-pop shops to pick up new vinyl albums. He reminisces not only about the city having a more vibrant music scene but also more painters, writers, and purveyors of the other arts.

“Even the college (Rutgers) had a concert series,” Shanahan said. “Do you know how many great bands I saw on College Avenue, from the Kinks to the Pretenders to Devo? There was a time when New Brunswick was happening.”

Two things have served him well during his career as a musician, songwriter, and producer. Hard work and talent have been the secret ingredients to a long career that has seen him collaborate with Robert Plant, Natalie Merchant, Michael Stipe, Ryan Adams, Ian Hunter, Suzanne Vega, and others.

For the past 20 or so years, he’s been a member of Patti Smith’s band. In fact, the song “1959,” written by Smith and Shanahan, was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1998.

Usually, he is too busy flying to the next gig or hustling to get more work to sit back and think about how the kid went from playing the upstairs room at The Melody to playing Madison Square Garden 10 or 11 times.

“I’m looking forward to the show in town and I have some friends who know us, so we’re all getting older,” Shanahan said. “I’m at an age where I’ve buried some friends. I even buried my mom this year. My parents (Irish immigrants John and Kathleen) are gone. They used to come to see me play in New Brunswick. Those are all strong memories for me.

“I’m just hoping that people that are friends of ours and people who enjoy what we’ve done, hopefully, they come out,” he added. “It will be a beautiful day or something. We’ll just enjoy being together. That’s the most important thing to me.”

Story By: Chuck O'Donnell
Photo Credit: Tony Shanahan