News & Events

We've just been booked to play at Willie McBride's in Branchburg, NJ next Saturday, October 8th. This will be our first time playing at Willie's with hopefully many more to come. Hope to see you all there!

The show we were scheduled to play at Sharky's West in Boonton on Friday, September 16th has been cancelled. The recent storms in our area have pushed back the timetable for getting the new bar opened. If you're still looking for a taste of Jack, come out to The Whiskey Bar in Hoboken this Thursday!

We just found out that on Thursday, September 15 we'll be playing at the Whiskey Bar in Hoboken, NJ. We've been wanting to find some places closer to NY to play for awhile and this may be our chance. Come out and show your support as we introduce ourselves to Hoboken in true Smackwater Jack style! If the show goes well, and we have a good turnout we may have many more shows in Hoboken to look forward to.

After 6 months of working in Switzerland, our drummer Keith Pieper is back and eager to get back behind the kit. Keith's first show back with the band is expected to be on Friday, September 16th at the Boonton Ave Grill. A HUGE thanks to Mike Dawson who filled in for Keith and allowed us to continue playing for the last six months!

Smackwater Jack (SWJBandNJ) is now on Twitter. Sign up for Twitter to follow us and get our latest updates www.twitter.com/swjbandnj

In our endless quest to find new places to play and new people to play in front of we came across the 2011 Cover Band Search competition being held at The Shannon Rose in Woodbridge, NJ. Each Wednesday, 3 cover bands will compete for a chance to advance to the semi-finals in July. We will be competing in round 1 next Wednesday, May 25th. Come out and show your support for Smackwater Jack as we introduce Woodbridge to some good old-fashioned rockin! Then go to http://www.facebook.com/theshannonrosewoodbridge and let them know that you think we should win!!! Hope to see you there.

After what seems like about 5 years in the making, I've recently completed the recording and mixing of a few songs that I wrote for my latest musical project, Corevalay. This project has been a new adventure for me as I've never written and recorded guitar, bass, AND vocal tracks. With the help of Jason Tremper (vocals and guitar) and Michael Dawson (drums), we've turned my simple ideas into finished songs that we're all very proud of! Please take a listen and let me know what you think. If you like what you hear, please forward it along to everyone you know. www.corevalay.com
-- Gerald

This March marks the Return of ROCK to North Jersey! Murphy's Third Rail is BACK, and with it comes Friday Night Live featuring some of the best rock bands in the area. Morris County has been lacking a great night club to see awesome music for quite awhile, but not anymore. Come check out Smackwater Jack on Friday, April 8th as we help welcome Murphy's back with a night of hard rockin classics and modern rock hits!

Update your calendars! Our show originally scheduled for next Saturday, January 29th at The Corner Pub in Flanders, NJ has been moved up a day to Friday, January 28th.

Year number two of Smackwater Jack begins this Friday at The Boonton Ave Grille in - you guessed it - Boonton, NJ. We'll be following up this show with performances at Pub 66 (Dover) on Saturday, January 22nd and The Corner Pub (Flanders) on Saturday, January 29th. Come out and show your support as we look to pick up right where we left off in 2010!

Thanks to all of you who submitted song requests. Since we don't have any shows this month, we've been focusing on learning songs for our next show at The Corner Pub. As of right now we've got about 1/2 dozen new songs that we'll be playing, and we're looking to add even more. So, keep the requests coming in! We'll see you in December.

Gerald was interviewed about our upcoming show at Bardi's in Pequannock. Check it out at http://www.northjersey.com

We've been keeping our schedule pretty light this year (generally not playing more than once every month or two) but over the next few months you can expect to see Smackwater Jack playing a little more often. Our first stop will be our debut performance at Pub 66 in Dover, NJ on Saturday, September 11th. Two weeks later, on September 25th we'll be appearing at Bardi's in Pequannock (also a new venue for us.) On Friday, October 8th we'll be returning to Ringside Pub in Caldwell, NJ. We're looking forward to seeing you at the shows!

We just got back from playing at The Fireside for the very last time. Our friends in Lurker Park invited us up to play a few songs and we had a blast. We almost missed our chance to play because our drummer was out of town, but thanks to Anthony Devizio sitting in, we were able to help The Fireside go out with a bang.

Nights like this don't come around very often. We are honored to have been a part of it. So long, Fireside. Thanks for having us!

After over 75 years, The Fireside will be closing its doors. The weekend of June 18th and 19th will be your last chance to party at the Fireside, and it should be a good one!

The Fireside will be going out in style with special appearances by members of:
Big Orange Cone, Smackwater Jack (we'll be there on Friday, June 18th), Monte & The Allstars, Last Night On Earth, Steve Brown, The Monster, Trippin Carla, Lurker Park and some of the other great bands that have rocked their stage over the years.

While we had hoped to play many, many shows at Denville's premier rock club, we're looking forward to playing a few more songs as we bid farewell! Hope to see you there.

We'll be playing at a couple new venues this summer starting next Saturday, June 5th, at Ringside Pub in Caldwell, NJ. On August 6th, we'll be performing at the all new Corner Pub (formerly Mt. Olive Bar & Grill) in Flanders, NJ.

Come out and show your support as we continue our quest to breathe some new life into the NJ hard rock/cover band scene!

Ok, so it's not an actual holiday, but this Saturday's show at the Fireside promises to be a good one! With the warm weather finally here, it will be a great night for friends, drinks and good music. You bring the friends, The Fireside will provide the drinks, and we'll take care of the tunes!

Our last show at The Fireside went over great, and we expect this one to be even better. We've added a lot of new songs from some of the best bands out there (Alice in Chains, Maroon 5, Faith No More, Guns N' Roses, and many more...) You can rest assured knowing that you won't be stuck listening to the same songs every time you see us play.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Smackwater Jack is back @ The Fireside in Denville, NJ on Saturday, May 8th, 2010. Last time you all made it great, let's see if you can out do yourselves.

It's long overdue, but we've finally started recording a handful of songs for our demo. On Thursday, Keith laid down drum tracks for nine songs. Gerald recorded his bass lines yesterday which only leaves guitars and vocals. It will probably be a few more weeks before we get anything else recorded, but once they're available we'll post some of the songs on the media page.

We're currently working to secure some dates for the spring and summer. New show notifications will be coming very soon!

We've spent the last few week's auditioning guys to fill the void created when Doug left. During this process we've added about 15 songs to our repertoire, while only having to drop a few. This made it pretty clear that while we would really LIKE to get another singer on board, it is not an absolute necessity.

We'll continue holding auditions, and if we find the right guy... great! If not, we're gonna plow ahead as a 4-piece. We're in a fortunate position where we don't NEED a new singer, but having the right guy up front would definitely make us stronger. Keep your eyes/ears open for new dates soon.

In an interesting turn of events, we have an immediate and unexpected need for a new lead singer/front man. He must have good pipes, strong stage presence and a great personality. Gerald (our bassist) is a great candidate for the position, but if we go that route we'll need a bassist who can handle backing vocal duties.

With the success of our show at The Fireside we want to get this resolved ASAP so we can continue to book more shows. Contact Us if you - or someone you know - is right for the job.

The Smackwater Jack web site is now up and running! Over the next few weeks we'll be adding a lot of content to the site, as some areas are still being developed. Sign up for the mailing list for up to date news and show announcements. It's not often that a cover band dares to stray from the safe, cookie cutter formula that works in every club. That ends now!

Smackwater Jack will be making their debut appearance at The Fireside in Denville, NJ on Saturday, January 16, 2010. Bring all your friends, you won't wanna miss it!

Reviews from the nearly 25 people in attendance for yesterday's showcase at Future Starz studios were overwhelmingly positive. There were some early technical difficulties with the bass rig, but once that got straightened out we plowed through two sets of material that we've been working on. Video clips are available on the smackwaterjackband YouTube channel.

Click here to view the video.

With our first show more than a couple of months away, we've decided to play a couple sets for a small group of people at Future Starz studios in Fairfield, NJ. The show will take place on November 21, 2009. Due to space limitations this will be an invitation-only event.