John McEuen: Made in Brooklyn

Best known as the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s traditionalist, John McEuen is joined by Steve Martin, David Bromberg, John Cowan, Matt Carsonis, Jay Ungar, John Carter Cash, David Amram, and others for Made in Brooklyn, on the audiophile label Chesky. The nine-song, 180-gram vinyl LP ranges from folk to gospel to country and bluegrass. It opens with a great hoedown of Warren Zevon’s “Dirty Life and Times” and leads Side B with an equally down-home take on Zevon’s “Excitable Boy.” Past glories are revisited in the NGDB’s biggest hit, “Mr. Bojangles,” sung by Bromberg, and a jug-band take on Wee Willie Wayne’s “Travelin’ Mood.” Cowan, one of the great voices of our time, owns the old Dillard & Clark country rocker “She Darked the Sun.” The 15-song CD is an even bigger hootenanny, leading with the klezmerized fiddle tune “Brooklyn Crossing” and including Flatt & Scruggs’ “Blue Ridge Cabin Home.” A highlight of the CD is McEuen’s showstopping fiddle/banjo/recitation, “The Mountain Whippoorwill.” Recorded in a Brooklyn church, the album sounds warm and real, putting you smack in the middle of it all. That’s a damn fine place to be.