VintageMusicConcerts  —  A Scrapbook from the Final Tour

Memorable Concerts Conclude 25-year Roadshow

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                                               © 2026 - Kenneth Lelen - All Rights Reserved

With completion of my Fall 2025 tour across New England and the MidAtlantic states, VintageMusicConcerts performed nearly 1,400 concerts in 26 years at small and off-the-radar venues, including public libraries, churches, municipal recreation centers, senior living villages, charitable and social groups, senior centers, retired professional-member groups, antique stores, local radio & TV shows, bookstores, history museums, acoustic music clubs, coffee houses and community colleges.

Over the years VintageMusicConcerts became known for offering great American ragtime, jazz, swing & pop tunes in a framework that combines historic, musical and romantic themes with the unmistakable sounds of vintage acoustic guitars. These final events constituted a swan song for a quarter-century concert career, so only my favorite themes were offered.

Concerts in this Fall 2025 tour included the following programs:

          MidCentury Melodies   —   Songs that were popular between                                                the end of World War II (1945) and the British Invasion (1964).

          Crooners, Swingers & Idols   —   Hits popularized by heart-throb                                         crooners, Rat Pack swingers & TV dinner idols in the 1950s & 1960s.

          Great American Cabaret — Tunes popularized by the dance bands,                                        torch singers & jazz combos who played for folks who dated, dined &                                        danced at supper clubs, restaurants, hotel ballrooms and night clubs.

          Hollywood Souvenirs — Ballads, standards and pop tunes that were                                      radio, jukebox & bandstand hits once people heard them in the movies.

          Vintage Guitar Roadshow  — Concert of jazz, ragtime & swing tunes                                     from '20s, '30s & '40s played on acoustic guitars made in the same era.

          The Moon, The Stars & You — Concert to summon the moon, the                                          stars and the heavens for romantic insights from classic love songs.

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Notes from a few concerts in final tour of VintageMusicConcerts

Sept 12, 2025 @ Jenkintown Library, Jenkintown PA - This Mid-Century Melodies concert was played before a friendly crowd in the Jenkins' Town Lyceum Building. Built in 1803 for many kinds of public events, it was the best venue for live music I've ever played - sonically speaking.

One of the songs I sang, "You Don't Know Me," was written in 1955 by Cindy Walker (1917 - 2006), a friend of Willie Nelson. Upon hearing that fact, the library staff began to search the library stacks for a copy of his 2012 memoir. 

When I mentioned that Willie admired Cindy's songwriting skills, they were eager to display their copy of the memoir, called "Roll Me Up And Smoke Me When I Die — Musings From The Road."

After the event concert-goers were delighted to examine the frontispiece of Willie's book. On the page he had drawn a guitar player. Beneath the drawing he placed a signature and date.

Sept 13, 2025 @ Old Bridge Library, Old Bridge NJ — This was a Crooners, Swingers & TV Dinner Idols concert with hit tunes first enjoyed by the so-called Silent Generation on record players, juke boxes and transistor radios, or at the movies and high school sock-hops.

Tony Bennett + Rosemary Clooney - 1950

The program included songs originally sung by Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney, the DeCastro Sisters, Eydie Gormé, Frank Sinatra, Patti Page, Margaret Whiting, Eddie Arnold, Peggy Lee, Jo Stafford and others.

Sept 18, 2025 @ Little Falls Library, Little Falls NJ — At this Mid-Century Melodies concert we offered popular tunes from the 20th Century's juicy middle decades — before musical tastes were bruised by disco, bubble gum, bossa nova and rowdy stadium singers.

Singer and songwriter Peggy Lee (1920 - 2002)

The musical program at Little Falls Public Library included more than a dozen songs introduced or made famous by Rosemary Clooney, Jo Stafford, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Eydie Gore, Vaughn Monroe, Patti Page, Eddy Arnold, Dean Martin, Bobby Darion, Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee.

Little Falls Public Library sign announced my Mid-Century Melodies concert

Sept 24, 2025 @ Heath Village, Hackettstown NJ — This was an early evening concert of a Crooners, Swingers & TV Dinner Idols program. It drew a modest-sized crowd of 35 people, but it was special to me. It was the 30th time in 25 years I had a VintageMusicConcert for the folks who live at this North Jersey retirement community.

My first concert at Heath Village took place in September, 2001. So, this event was a milestone for me because it meant several generations of oldsters have heard hit songs and popular favorites at my one-of-a-kind concerts.

When I began my offering concerts in 1999, I was singing for people in their 70s, 80s and 90s who wanted to hear songs from their youth that were hits during the 1920s and 1930s. Over the past 25 years the ages of the people in my audiences remained the same, but the pop tunes they wanted to hear gradually reached into more recent decades — the 1940s, 1950s and, by 2020, the 1960s.

Oct 4, 2025 @ Homewood Living, Frederick MD — This was my 16th concert since 2005 at this large retirement facility located 50 miles north of Washington D.C. It was an afternoon concert with a great musical program that began nicely but ended on a sour note when a resident and her guest – a grandmother and her grandson – realized my vintage music concerts were designed for adult and senior audiences, not for children.

Ken Lelen at Homewood Living
Frederick MD in October 2025

Nevertheless, the pair sat in the first row of the auditorium – five feet from where I stood. Ten minutes into the concert the child began to jump around, make noise, interrupt my guitar playing and singing, and distract audience members in nearby seats. They were politely asked to move to another part of the room so the music and program could proceed unimpeded.

The resident, however, took umbrage at my request and complained to the event sponsor, the community activity director. Upon hearing the woman's grievance, my host announced she would end our 20-year relationship.

The show was Great American Cabaret. It offers great tunes of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s that were performed by dance bands, jazz combos or torch song singers that played for the folks who dated, dined and danced at juke joints, night clubs, cabarets, hotel ballrooms, supper clubs and bistros.

In the decades after WW II people often went to such dinner spots to hear live music and dance to the popular songs of the day. These people included my own parents and their friends, as well as Broadway actors, movie stars and sports celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio.

Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio at El Morocco
Supper Club in New York City in September 1954

All in all, my last concert at Homewood was a bittersweet event for me. About a week later my host informed me of her decision to cancel my future concerts at Homewood. There was no discussion in the matter. She simply emailed me.

"The residents and I were very upset with your response to the young man [and his grandmother] in the front row during your recent performance here," she said. "This is their home – not a theatre - and we paid you to entertain for us."

Oct 11, 2025 @ Fox Hill Village, Westwood MA — This was my 11th concert since 2004 at this posh retirement community located west of Boston. It featured a musical program called The Moon, The Stars and You that summoned celestial inspiration for romantic insight.

Songs included the typical boy-meet-girl, boy-loses-girl and boy-catches-girl themes. We're talking about such hits as "I'm Beginning to See The Light" popularized by Ella Fitzgerald and the Ink Spots in 1945, "Teach Me Tonight," a fabulous tune covered by Nat King Cole, Jo Stafford and the DeCastro Sisters in mid-'50s, and "Until The Real Thing Comes Along," introduced by Fats Waller in 1936.

Of course, our concert included a few moon songs: "Blue Moon," Rogers and Hart's great tune from 1934, "Fly Me To The Moon," a hit for Kay Ballard in 1954, for Eydie Gormé in 1958 and for Frank Sinatra in 1964, and "Moonglow," a hit for Artie Shaw in 1941.

William Holden and Kim Novak dance to "Moonglow" in the 1955 film "Picnic"

Last but not least, our heavenly hit parade included songs for star-crossed lovers, my all-time favorites: "As Time Goes By," written by Herman Hupfeld for 1931 Broadway play but popularized in the 1942 film "Casablanca," and "Stardust," which was written as an instrumental by Hoagy Carmichael in 1927 and recorded by Louis Armstrong and Bing Crosby in 1931.

Louis Armstrong plays trumpet and sings "Stardust" in a 1931 recording.

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                                               © 2026 - Kenneth Lelen - All Rights Reserved