DOORS 6:30PM • SHOWTIME 7:30PM
Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre • Basie Center Campus • 99 Monmouth Street, Red Bank

Iconic guitarist, songwriter, vocalist and 3-time Grammy award-winner BRIAN SETZER has achieved one career milestone after another. He’s sold millions of albums and is a “Musician’s Musician” credited with continually taking chances with innovative and daring musical styles.  Setzer is widely credited for taking two forgotten genres, rockabilly and swing, adding his own blend of gunpowder and rockin’ style, and completely reinventing and single-handedly resurrecting them in the process.  Along the way, he has scored chart-topping hits, sold 13 million records and received the Orville H. Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award throughout his decorated career as founder/leader of the Stray Cats, his 19-piece Brian Setzer Orchestra, and as a solo artist. He is consistently cited as one of the world’s greatest living guitarists, and has a best-selling, extensive line of elite Gretsch signature model guitars bearing his name. SETZER is also, fittingly, in the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.  On the live front, Setzer has headlined venues and festivals worldwide, including a 1983 headlining slot on the iconic US Festival in California, The Playboy Jazz Festival, a three-night, sold-out headlining run at the Hollywood Bowl with the 98-piece Philharmonic Orchestra, Woodstock ’99, and performing in front of more than 150,000 people as headliner of the Montreal Jazz Festival.  His reach also includes films and TV, where his roles include portraying rockabilly pioneer Eddie Cochran in the 1987 film, La Bamba,  Fox’s “Beverly Hills 90210,” among many others, and he is one of the few musicians to be animated in an episode of “The Simpsons” in 2002. That same year, SETZER was personally requested to induct Chet Atkins into the 17th Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  SETZER had the honor of being invited in 2006 to perform at the White House for the President of the United States. Also in 2006, he was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame with the Stray Cats. In 2014, SETZER received the distinct honor of being asked by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. to donate a replica of his original 1959 Gretsch 6120 “Stray Cat” guitar, joining an elite collection of iconic treasures at the museum.

Yates McKendree

Born in Nashville and raised in a recording studio, mul5-instrumentalist Yates McKendree grew up hearing and playing with many great musicians. Self taught from the age 3, music came to him naturally. Although just 21 years old, his experience as a professional musician goes back 10+ years. That early experience includes playing regularly in some of Nashville’s most notable venues (The Bluebird Cafe, The Ryman Auditorium, Third & Lindsley). It also includes North American and European tours and mul5ple appearances on na5onal television (Imus In The Morning, CBS Mornings).

During Yates’s high school years, he played on and engineered many recording projects; most notably for Delbert McClinton and John HiaX, who told Rolling Stone Magazine, “Yates was our secret ingredient.” In January 2020, Yates earned a GrammyTM Award for his role as an engineer and a musician on Delbert McClinton’s “Tall Dark & Handsome”.

Now the award winning McKendree is embarking on his solo career with an album dedicated to the music he loves the most, straight-up Tradi5onal Blues. His debut LP “Buchanan Lane” on the indie label Qualified Records, was released on October 28, 2022 to worldwide cri5cal acclaim. The album features both blues classics and original composi5ons. Produced with his father, Kevin McKendree, “Buchanan Lane” highlights Yates’ skills, remarkable style and taste as a mul5-instrumentalist and vocalist with an emphasis on guitar.

Presented by AM Productions

Please note: At the direction of the CDC or local health authorities, the Count Basie Center may at any time institute policies pertaining to COVID-19 transmission, including but not limited to mask requirements. Certain artists and / or touring productions may also require patrons to be masked and / or present proof of COVID-19 vaccination.

Masks are not required to attend performances at Count Basie Center venues, though we welcome their use and respect all patrons who choose to continue doing so.