PBS’s TJ Lubinsky talks ‘My Music’, DOO WOP Generations

We've talked many times at night about how to save rock n roll and how to keep the music that we grew up with alive and now T.J. Lubinsky has a plan. The host/producer of the long running "My Music" concert series on PBS which has united several bands from the '50s through the '80s is now blending young stars of doo-wop with the legendary bands to create DOO WOP Generations.

Lubinsky, a native of Bradley Beach, who grew up hanging at Yakity Yaks in Asbury Park describes the plan: "We've got a lot of young people who can really sing, they're not necessarily professional singers, singers you know, they're just singers." After an audition process that lasted a year, Lubinsky was not only listening to the voices but thinking about what they could do with them.

What makes Doo Wop Generations unlike other shows is that these kids have real passion for the music. They're not just singing songs they feel it inside.

"JT Morgan, 36, a Philly kid calls into my Jersey radio show asking for a song by the Brooklyn Bridge," it gets better. "He starts to sing a few bars and I'm like 'Man that's great but I think you should sing 'Worst That Could Happen' so why don't you go and lay down a few minutes of it.'" And he did. As T.J. says, "He sounds exactly like Johnny Maestro, he feels the passion of the song the way that Johnny Maestro did." It's not about imitation. "He's not Johnny Maestro he's not pretending to be Johnny Maestro, he's a kid who's never been on stage professionally to sing a song." Morgan will be on stage singing wit the actual Brooklyn Bridge.

Morgan, who's wife hails from Ft Lee, after hearing T.J. and myself on New Jersey 101.5 Facebooked me. "My parents turned me on to this music. Some of my earliest memories are of driving around in the back seat of my parents beat up ‘72 Chevy Malibu with the windows down, blasting off of this great music. For me, being a part of this show meant the world, because I can hopefully, in some small part keep all of this great music alive. Plus it was also kind of a thank you to my parents"

Doo Wop Generations is loaded with several stories just like these. Stories of kids who learned of the music at the feet of their parents get what it's all about and look to keep alive. Doo Wop Generations airs this month on PBS.

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