DAVID BROMBERG
Since the ’60s, gifted and intuitive multi-instrumentalist David Bromberg has blurred stylistic lines, effortlessly blending rock, folk, blues and country. Learning guitar from blues titan Reverend Gary Davis, Bromberg hopped on the tail end of the Greenwich Village folk boom, became the “go to” session ace for Doug Sahm, Dylan and others, and launched a solo career characterized by his matter-of-fact baritone, class clown humor and otherworldly incandescence on guitar, fiddle, dobro and mandolin. A musician’s musician on the cusp of fame, Bromberg walked away from the business in 1980, devoting himself to violin-making. After a decades-long sabbatical, the former George Harrison and Grateful Dead collaborator returned with his incendiary flat-picking and warm sense of humor intact. Nowadays touring with a “fuzzy math” quartet that frequently spills over into six or seven members, Bromberg has released the new LP Only Slightly Mad, which channels the laid back eclecticism of his best ’70s efforts. Critics charge that he hasn’t changed his act since those halcyon days, but why should he? Bromberg’s been so ahead of the genre-bending curve that the rest of the world is still trying to catch up. (Pat Moran)
Price: $25/$28