is known both for his clarinet and mandolin playing, and he is equally adept at both. Sometimes his two worlds collide, but finds him sticking to his strings, while the simultaneously recorded is meant to showcase 's clarinet work. He's a restless performer with deep roots in as well as various strains of (particularly ), but this one's all about the former, skipping from to mountain music (with more than a bit of a New York touch, hence the title, which reflects on 's 1979 ) with ease. works here with bassist and drummer , and there is plenty of room for them to improvise -- , in particular, sets off on a number of well thought-out solos. But mainly it's about 's virtuosity -- from the first bars of the opening cover of 's in which reels off lightning licks on his axe, the focus is primarily on his fingers. offers his takes on such as and but it's his original compositions, among them the earthy title track and the spare that prove the most impressive on the disc. does break out the clarinet for a ten-minute tour de force reconfiguration of the trad that heads into some fairly territory, but the track seems out of place on this otherwise unadorned recording. ~ Jeff Tamarkin