Must be something in the water. Or maybe it's those Jersey tomatoes. People from New Jersey can really carry a tune. Let's see, there's Sinatra, Springsteen, and Paul Simon. Jon Bon Jovi and Dionne Warwick and The Four Seasons and Fountains of Wayne.

And now there's Ken Shane. Raised in Atlantic City, Shane has created his own category in New Jersey's impressive list of musicians. The music on Shane's debut CD, South Ridgeway Avenue, resonates with haunting images of summers come and gone. Painting pictures of a pre-casino South Jersey, the singer/songwriter's voice warms like surprise sunshine on a balmy boardwalk morning. Shades of Jackson Browne-like writing weaves throughout the tracks, luminous in images, emotions, and reflections. Shane's music muses of beginnings and endings, and with smooth vocals as soothing as the ocean's motion, the lyrics carry the listener on the waves of a journey that hasn't yet ended.

The opening song, "Summer and Smoke," sets the tone for the album with a reminiscence of seaside days long gone. Bittersweet yet hopeful, the song's poignant meditation on summer's end leaves the listener on the edge of a dream, waiting for more.

Lyrics of broken dreams, searching for faith, endless nights, and crawling to the light infuse the second track, "Good Friday," with an aching beauty accented by perfect percussion and a gorgeous guitar lead.

Themes of loss and redemption thread seamlessly throughout the album, with poetic shadows and memories flickering through songs such as "Disappeared" and the title track, "South Ridgeway Avenue," in which Shane writes of his childhood home.

In the wake of September 11, the songwriter captures the uncertainty and surreal feelings of tenuous days in "The Motions," with its lyrics of grief and healing.

A hidden track at the CD's end pays a tender tribute to Shane's grandmother in the son,"My Grandmother's Hands," which ends on a note of longing and faith in a future when all those who once lived at South Ridgeway Avenue will be together once again.

Shane's vocals and guitar are backed up by a band of talented musicians which includes Stanky Brown Group drummer Jerry Cordasco, Rich Bunkiewicz on bass, & guitarists Herb Maitlandt, and Walt Stacey of Big Orange Cone. Daze of Rain's Chris D'Amico plays keyboard and adds backing vocals to the mix.

Ken Shane has been in the music business for a long time: working as a recording engineer and producer, sound and light technician, and as a manager to other artists. Throughout his career, though, Shane was writing songs. Songs that stick like sand and saltwater to the skin, playing again and again in the music of the mind.

"My music is about what's been lost, both personally and as a society, but it is also never without hope for the future, and a chance for redemption," says the artist, who often performs live in Asbury Park and at various venues throughout northern Jersey.

The listeners of South Ridgeway Avenue have a hope for the future: that Ken Shane releases another album, soon. The ghosts of his first album linger in the mind long after the silence falls and the carousel runs out of steam. The CD is as magical as the place where the shore meets the sea.

The singer/songwriter is currently working on recording his second release, as well as on serving with the newly-formed foundation: The New Jersey Music Hall of Fame. Without a doubt, that hall will include Ken Shane.