Vinnie James

Raised in Newark, New Jersey and the "inlet" ghetto of Atlantic City, his RCA debut, "All American Boy", and his 2007 follow-up, "Songs for the Long Journey", are both written and produced in the classic Jersey Shore sound. Vinnie James worked with Southside Johnny in pre-production on "All American Boy", and provided backing vocals in the studio with Little Steven and Jon Bon Jovi on Jon's first solo album. Vinnie James is one of the only African-American songwriters in his genre. His first band was called Rumbletown and was named after Pleasantville, New Jersey, a suburb of Atlantic City that was given the nickname "Rumbletown" by the news media, because of the intense race riots there in the mid-1970s.