Restaurant seems like good spot for local rock
In the News
Mark Rosman

The kind of rock and roll that Free-hold has needed for years found a home on Jan. 6. Cliftons Restaurant and Sports Bar on Park Avenue, Freehold Borough, hosted rocker John Eddie, who has been a fixture on the Jersey Shore music scene since arriving here from his native Virginia in the early 1980s.

I’ve been a fan of John Eddie ever since that time, but I always had to go somewhere else — Long Branch, Asbury Park, South River — to see him play. The end of a show meant a drive home of between 30 minutes and an hour.

It has been my belief for years that Freehold — the township or the borough, take your pick — should be the home of a place where live, loud music can be played. I know there is a place or two in the borough that can handle a singer with an acoustic guitar and a James Taylor repertoire, but I’m talking about rock and roll.

Cliftons could be that place. It’s a good-looking restaurant with a large room upstairs that can accommodate several hundred people for a show. Owner Scott Clifton was among the crowd watching Eddie perform and, in fact, he has booked the singer for another appearance Jan. 20.

CLARE MARIE CELANO John Eddie performs at Cliftons, Freehold Borough, on Jan. 6.

Meanwhile, the Jan. 6 show was another in a long line of well-received John Eddie performances. There were plenty of people who the singer refers to as “faithful followers” on hand to chime in with lyrics at just the right time.

The band played a fired-up cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “She’s the One,” which Eddie introduced with a smile as being a composition written by “a local Freehold musician.”

“I wish him luck,” Eddie said, joking about Springsteen.

Eddie’s song “Forty,” which is about the march of time, included references to Springsteen and the Rolling Stones, all of whom are older than Eddie, but who continue to rock on. Eddie says in the lyrics to “Forty” that he has never dated Lindsay Lohan (who is 19), and, at his advanced age of 46, probably never will.

Welcome to that club, John, and guess what? It doesn’t look like either one of us will be asking Hilary Duff (who is 20), out on a date in the near future, either.

As Eddie sings in “Forty,” he may be more likely to date Stevie Nicks (who is 57). Well, hopefully she still has some of her Fleetwood Mac money left.

It was my pleasure after years of having to drive a distance to see him play, to shake John Eddie’s hand before he took the stage and say “Welcome to Freehold.”

I’d be happy to see Cliftons become a place fans of good music (hint: including the blues) can call their own in a town that should be building on its significant rock and roll heritage.

Mark Rosman is the managing editor of the News Transcript.