How ‘Life Happens’ for a New Jersey musician

"Tommy from Swedesboro" has been calling me for weeks playing "Jersey's Opening Lines." When he sent me his latest CD, I popped it in on my way to work figuring I'd listen to a song or two just to be nice. I ended up listening to the entire CD.

Tom Reilly has been performing around New Jersey and writing music since 1982 in such bands as "Jasper" and "Captain Black." Pop music has been Reilly's favorite style since he saw "A Hard Day's Night" at the age of 13 at a friend's sleepover.

If you like pop music, you're going to love "Life Happens," a special version of which he recorded here at out New Jersey 101.5 studios with his friend and band mate Tom Hatala. After which, they co-hosted the game show with me that he plays on Thursday nights. Pop has been Tommy's style since he saw "A Hard Day's Night" at the age of 13 at a friends sleepover.

As for "Life Happens," Tommy said he likes it "because it pretty much summarizes where I was coming from when I decided to make a new album back in 2014. I decided to come out of a 20-year creative coma and was a little angry at myself that I'd let so much time pass since recording last."

"It's a twist on the old "Rip Van Winkle" story......what happened to my life? I went to bed one might and woke up old," he said. "I just wanted to express the urgency of doing what's really important in your life while you can -before life's inevitable distractions (career, relationships, marriage, kids, health crises, etc) take over and you lose the chance to really pursue your ambitions and dreams."

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Steve Trevelise is on the air from Monday-Thursday, 7 to 11 p.m. Tweet him @realstevetrev or @nj1015.