Dion Stuns in Concert: ‘How is He 86?’—Review

Dion at the Sheen Center in New York’s Greenwich Village, June 11, 2026. (Photo via Dion Productions)

Dion DiMucci clearly felt the love from the hometown audience last Thursday (June 11, 2026). The sold-out concert, at the Sheen Center for Thought and Culture on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, was filled with well-wishers as the singer of such early rock ‘n’ roll classics as “The Wanderer” and “Runaround Sue” regaled the crowd, which included plenty of music biz insiders. The solo acoustic performance, billed as “Words and Music,” was filled with many of his street-wise stories, as an Italian kid growing up in The Bronx in the ’40s and ’50s.

This concert was filmed for a future project—Dion referred to it as a documentary in the making—and was part of his first tour in more than four years, which includes shows in June, followed by more dates in the Northeast in September.

On this pre-summer night, Dion introduced roughly 20 songs with memories of what his young self was doing at the time. For instance, as a teenager in the mid-’50s, he was head over heels in love with a girl named Sue who had moved to the neighborhood with her family from Vermont—”Who moves to The Bronx?,” he asked the audience rhetorically. After several hits as Dion and the Belmonts in the late ’50s and early ’60s, he went solo. In 1961, “Runaround Sue,” which he wrote with his collaborator, Ernie Maresca, reached #1. He and the former Susan Butterfield have been married since 1963.

There were stories about his gang and a longtime drug habit (he’s been sober since 1968), his enormous respect for his church’s monsignor, the influence of country legend Hank Williams and the blues on his own music, and his encounters with fellow music legends, including touring with Buddy Holly. Though he had earned a spot on Holly’s doomed chartered plane following the Feb. 3, 1959, Iowa concert, Dion famously gave up his seat to Ritchie Valens as he couldn’t justify its $36 cost. He acknowledged that was the same amount his hard-working parents had paid each month for their apartment when he was a child.

Perhaps most striking was his voice, as bold and confident as someone—Dion, perhaps?—50 years younger. When the attendees greeted each other after the show, the first comment in every conversation was “How is he 86?” [He was born on July 18, 1939.] He’s a marvel. Not to be overlooked, however, is his guitar playing, which was evocative and soulful throughout the night.

In addition to his hits, which also included his 1962 #2 cover of the Leiber and Stoller favorite “Ruby Baby,” originally recorded by the Drifters, and the poignant late ’60s tribute “Abraham, Martin and John,” Dion performed his anthemic “King of the New York Streets,” blues numbers originally done by Robert Johnson, Jimmy Reed and John Lee Hooker, Fred Neil’s folk classic “The Dolphins,” and “Serenade,” his remake of Tom Waits’ “San Diego Serenade,” with which he closed the program.

It’s been a busy few years for the legend. Dion has been prolific as a recording artist and author, having penned (with Adam Jablin) his biographical narrative The Rock and Roll Philosopher. The 2025 book and companion album are available in the U.S./worldwide here, in Canada here and in the U.K. here.

Those were preceded in 2024 by the album Girl Friends that found Dion joining forces with a range of female artists including Susan Tedeschi, Shemekia Copeland, Carlene Carter, Sue Foley, Rory Block and others. That same year, Dion, along with Mavis Staples, Jackson Browne and John Mellencamp, received the American Music Honors Award at the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music at New Jersey’s Monmouth University.

Dion returned to Monmouth earlier this month to participate in the Springsteen Center’s grand opening event, Music America: The Songs That Shaped Us, a program celebrating America’s 250th birthday that featured a variety of stars including Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Rosanne Cash, Jackson Browne, Mavis Staples, Kenny Chesney, Gary Clark Jr., Keb’ Mo’, Nils Lofgren, Public Enemy, Stevie Van Zandt and Jimmie Vaughan.

He will be backed by a full band for dates in Glenside, Penn., at the Keswick Theater on June 18 and at Flagstar at Westbury Music Fair on Long Island on June 20. Dion then returns to the road in September. Tickets for those shows are available here and here. His catalog is available here.