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| Bootleg Remedy: Brooklyn, NY, 3/19/03 |
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Author: Ben Pomeroy
Posted on: Saturday, March 22, 2003
As I listened to the Brooklyn based band, Bootleg Remedy at Galapagos the other night, I felt as though I was kicking back at a New Orleans speak easy, sipping on a gin fizz and melting into a room of soft-light and satin. This quintet and occasional septet mix a soothing bled of Dixieland jazz, bluegrass, and Western Swing. The hypnotic thumping bass and gushing lap steel guitar produce a dreamy old time sound that befits a lazy summer time Sears Sucker stroll in the park.
Bootleg Remedy was the third act in an evening of four bluegrass/ modern folk acts during Galapagos’s bluegrass night. Although actually none of the bands that night could accurately be cataloged as “bluegrass” or “folk”; the opening act Saint Felix Street Station is more “old time rag” than bluegrass, and the second act Muscular Christians falls more into an ironic acoustic rock realm, the most cohesive sound out of all the bands was Bootleg Remedy.
The band has borrowed and revived the sounds and instrumentation of former music greats like Stephan Grappelli, Django Rhinehart, and Roy Acuff. They mix up the repertoire with both their originals as well as covers by Lionel Hampton, Flatt and Scruggs and David Grisman. Each tune, whether it is bluegrass or jazz has a swing veneer and a graceful stride. The bass player Mike Simonetti leads the band with his upright and sings with both a jazz and an “Oakie” inflection. Lead guitarist Mike Gomez, plays with agility and taste, nodding to Charlie Christian and Django Rhinehart. Gomez plays challenging solos, yet keeps them grounded and not too flashy.
All of the members of Bootleg Remedy are young and skilled and their interest and adroit arrangement of old time music is commendable and refreshing. They fall into a current movement of young musicians who are reaching back to old time music as an antithesis to modern pop. Another Brooklyn phenomena, Howard Fishman and his Quartet would be included in this movement. The benefit of the retro roots craze is the education of young listeners to the roots of jazz and bluegrass. The tricky side of it is how bands like Bootleg Remedy can develop their music more as their own without such immediate associations with their predecessors.
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