The second release from New York City's greatest old-timey music revivalists, the Bootleg Remedy continue to wade through the source waters of American music. The brainchild of ethnomusicologist and multi-instrumentalist David Gould, traditional forms are juxtaposed and reinvigorated with a rowdy and rollicking spirit and without a hint of academic pretension. Whether remaking Ralph Stanley's "Love Me Darling Just Tonight" with the unique pairing of a decidedly Western swing-influenced lap steel with a back-porch frailed banjo or presenting Flatt & Scruggs' "Down the Road" as a pre-bluegrass boogie, the Bootleg Remedy are never content to simply revisit the ethos of the past. Providing fun on par with that of the Squirrel Nut Zippers or R. Crumb & the Cheap Suit Serenaders, Gould has an undeniably refined talent for breathing new life into songs written long before he was born and creating new compositions that sound similarly ancient. Having penned five of the album's ten tracks, Gould enlists the help of a large cast of endlessly talented co-conspirators, jumping from old-time jazz balladry to somber rags, klezmer-inspired romps, and Dixieland stomp, occasionally changing from one to the other or mixing elements from each together in a single song. Overall, a mixing pot of country, jazz, blues, and Western swing that boils over gloriously for 45 minutes. --Matt Fink

The ethnomusicologist, composer, and banjo player David Gould leads this Brooklyn-based band through a rousing set of bluegrass, Dixieland, and Western-swing songs in . . . its sophomore album, "Cutting Time." Tubas, trombones, violins, and kazoos are promised. Good times are assured.

Cutting Time captures the free wheels and casually excellent musicianship of one of the best-time bands ever. In the samples here, you can hear how Bootleg Remedy works: the CD hurtles through "Love Me Darling Just Tonight" into sly "Atonement" and spare "Down the Road". "Cutting Time" is a pure Bootleg jam from the tuba on up. It's all wonderful, infectious fun. Just try to keep your feet still. Try to keep your bad attitude. Dare ya.

I bought this CD on a whim; the musicians are excellent, the music diverse, wonderfully exuberant and beautifully executed, and I wouldn't trade it for a moment! Kudos, kudos! oh, and my friend loves the name. my only question: when you cats coming to Music City USA??