Bruce Springsteen helped turn Music America: The Songs that Shaped Us into a two-night celebration of American music history at the OceanFirst Bank Center at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey, on June 4 and 5, 2026. The event was built around 250 years of American music, moving from early roots figures like Robert Johnson, Hank Williams and Woody Guthrie to later icons such as Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Dion DiMucci and Public Enemy.
The concerts also doubled as a celebration of the newly renamed Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music, which opens to the public next week and was described as reflecting the center’s expanded mission of preserving Springsteen’s legacy while also honoring the broader history and diversity of American music. Executive director Robert Santelli said the event is “a journey through American music history” and emphasized that it reflects the center’s goal of bringing people together through music.
Night one featured Springsteen alongside Trombone Shorty, Keb’ Mo’, Valerie June, Brian Fallon, Shemekia Copeland, Rosanne Cash, Kenny Chesney and Dropkick Murphys, with tributes to artists including Son House, Billie Holiday, Johnny Cash, Pete Seeger, the Carter Family and others. One of the standout moments came when Dropkick Murphys played their own “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” and then joined Springsteen for “American Band.” Valerie June performed “I Ain’t Got No Home In This World Anymore” and then covered Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit.”
Night two brought an even wider mix of artists, including Jimmie Vaughan, Mavis Staples, Public Enemy, David Sancious, Dion, Sheryl Crow, Jon Bon Jovi, Jackson Browne, Will Calhoun, Gary Clark Jr., Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul, Nils Lofgren and Darlene Love. Springsteen covered Elvis Presley’s “Jailhouse Rock” and “Burning Love,” then teamed with Sheryl Crow on “I Shall Be Released,” Gary Clark Jr. on “Farther Up the Road,” Stevie Van Zandt on “Raise Your Hand,” and Van Zandt, Jon Bon Jovi and Public Enemy on “I Don’t Want to Go Home.”
The full night-two setlist showed how broad the event’s concept really was. Among the songs performed were “Johnny B. Goode” by Jon Bon Jovi, “Bye Bye Johnny” by Stevie Van Zandt, “I Fall to Pieces” by Sheryl Crow, “Catfish Blues” by Gary Clark Jr., “The Wanderer” by Dion, “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall” by Sheryl Crow, “The Weight” by Mavis Staples, “Texas Flood” by Jimmie Vaughan, “Fight the Power” by Public Enemy, and “Land of Hope and Dreams” as the closing Springsteen solo number. The show was presented as a performance of landmark songs from across rock, blues, hip-hop, country, folk, jazz, bluegrass and gospel.
By the end of the second night, Music America had become more than a concert series. It was a large-scale statement about the connections between genres and generations, with Springsteen, Bon Jovi and the rest of the lineup using familiar songs to trace the roots of American music in front of a Jersey Shore crowd.
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