Johnny set the tone for the evening at the start by announcing a song in tribute to “an honest musician.” The band slammed a home run with their fierce version of The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down. I liked the way they bracketed the show with Band songs opening and closing the main set, and then Ophelia as the penultimate encore. Ironically, Levon Helm’s next show was to have been at the Wellmont before he collapsed and went into his final decline. You could almost feel his spirit hovering over the stage. God rest his soul.
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Tantalized: Everybody was singing...
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By Kevin Gross/Gloucester County Times – Friday, March 23, 2012 – The Poor Fools is made up of members from his other band, the Asbury Jukes, and includes John Conte on bass, Tommy Byrnes on guitar, and longtime Jukes collaborator Jeff Kazee on the organ and percussion, plus Springsteen violinist and fiddle player Soozie Tyrell.
By Jay Lustig / The Star-Ledger: New Jersey ranks 11th among the states in population, and 47th in physical size. But in terms of musical importance, it’s second to none.
That’s why, when Southside Johnny Lyon comes to the Narrows Center for the Arts in Fall River on Friday night (March 16), he won’t be with The Jukes, but with a new quintet, The Poor Fools. Southside and the new band will be performing a wide variety of music, in a mostly acoustic setting, from seldom heard Jukes tunes to surprising trips afield–Muddy Waters to Mose Allison, Wilco to The Band, George Jones to Django Reinhardt. Fans can expect the unexpected, and the show gets underway at 8 p.m., with advance tickets $35, or $40 at the door. The Narrows Center is located at 16 Anawan St., Fall River. Tickets can be purchased online at www.ncfta.org, or by calling 508-324-1926.
Taking some time off from his primary gig as frontman for Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Johnny Lyon is paring things down a little bit for his latest tour. Bringing the Poor Fools to Sellersville on Sunday, March 25, for an intimate, acoustic set, Lyon plans to have a great time going through some choice selections of the great American songbook.
Exuberant, energetic, and inspired performance by the Jersey band.
“I don’t always love the stuff he does but this one took me back to when I first heard Born to Run. I rode around in the car and listened to it, like, five times,” says “Southside” Johnny Lyon, an old ally of Springsteen’s whose band, Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, emerged in the 1970s from the same New Jersey working-class background.(…)
By Gary Graff – for Journal Register Newspapers; Twitter: @graffonmusic. 
Southside Johnny Lyon has been playing with his Asbury Jukes since 1975.
