Big Apple Bluegrass Festival

The Big Apple Bluegrass Festival, held the weekend of Nov. 8-10 at the Baggot Inn in the Village, featured more than 30 bands. As at any bluegrass festival, there was beer and people wore cowboy hats. Still, a few local bands showed a distinctly NYC multi-culti approach to the trad form. The results were mixed.

Margot Leverett and the Klezmer Mountain Boys came about as a result of the Baggot Inn's Wednesday night bluegrass jam. Some time ago Leverett made her way to the bar, clarinet in hand, and announced that she wanted to learn bluegrass licks. Shortly thereafter the band was born. It was Leverett's first appearance at the Big Apple Bluegrass Festival, and she was visibly thrilled.

The band's experimental sound worked part of the time. Their attempts to bluegrassify klezmer music were generally more successful than their attempts to klezmerize bluegrass?that is to say, Kenny Kosek's superb fiddling added a nice dimension to the klezmer songs, whereas Leverett's superb clarinet playing could not quite fill the void left by the lack of banjo.

Two of the Klezmer Mountain Boys?fiddler Kenny Kosek and mandolin player Barry Mitterhoff?also played for Tony Trischka & Skyline. Trischka, a Syracuse native, assembled Skyline in the 1980s. The sound is what is referred to as "progressive bluegrass," a combination of bluegrass, country and folk tunes (both standards and originals).

Skyline also had a few tricks up its sleeve. Whereas singer/guitarist Danny Weiss held the audience rapt during a particularly moving rendition of "High Sierra" (a folk song previously recorded by Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt), nothing pleased the crowd more than the medley near the end of their set. It began with an instrumental version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," a song that adapts surprisingly well to bluegrass. About halfway through, the bar, packed nearly to capacity, burst spontaneously into song. Just as the audience had reached a fever pitch, Skyline segued into the Wizard of Oz theme "We're Off to See the Wizard" with each band member taking a different singing role. An enthusiastic spectator wearing a beanie banged his head to the music, screaming. It was the most enthusiastic I've seen a room full of New Yorkers since?well, since they played the song last year.

Another local act, Brooklyn Browngrass, introduced drums into the lineup. The look was pure Williamsburg?everyone was pretty and had good hair. Banjo-stud/singer Phil Roebuck was talented and charismatic. Fiddler Katy Cox, who bears more than a passing resemblance to Edna St. Vincent Millay, played pure poetry. The songs displayed a strong r&b influence, but Roebuck sang about everything, including God and sailors. His banjo?which, like him, was dressed in black?got sweaty and shone out into the audience. I could as easily imagine them holding their own in a rock 'n' roll venue as at the Kentucky State Fair. The music was energetic and danceable (though, sadly, the beanied guy was nowhere to be found).

After that set, Cox reemerged wearing a purple lamé lace-up bustier and denim hotpants. She'd also swapped her acoustic fiddle for a hot little electric number. This time, she was playing with UncleFucker (playing the festival under their less offensive moniker, Unclefugger). UncleFucker was by far the most plugged-in outfit of the weekend: even the banjo was electric. When the group's dancers (affectionately called the Fuckerettes) took the stage, a guy sitting at the next table tapped my shoulder.

"Are they going to take their tops off?" he asked.

"I'm pretty sure this is as good as it gets," I told him.

UncleFucker plays a thrashing metal/ punk version of bluegrass that can hardly be called bluegrass at all. Frontman Izzy Zaidman approaches everything from the Osborne Brothers' "Rocky Top" to Bill Monroe's "Wheel Hoss" with the same aggressive zeal. A listener able to look past the bare midriffs (Zaidman's included) and purple sparkle might notice a band that features crack musicianship, including the frenzied banjo-picking of festival organizer Tom Hanway. Or, as often happens with loud bands, the listener might only notice that they're loud. The music was sometimes so raucous that it was difficult to hear Zaidman's unique voice or discern Cox's fiddling leads. The high point of the set came when the band played the oft-covered late-50s classic "Long Black Veil" (written by Marijohn Wilkin and Danny Dill). The slower tempo offered the audience a chance to hear each band member more clearly, while the lyrics about a man falsely accused of murder had a macabre touch that suited UncleFucker.

The Fuckerettes performed a well-choreographed routine?involving such fun props as lassoes and stick horses?without upstaging the band members.

They did not remove their tops.