It wasn’t quite a hootenanny, but Brooklyn’s Salt & Samovar got The Studio audience shimmying and shaking with an ecstatic love-in of a show that even made the venue’s painted American flag backdrop seem perfectly appropriate. This band, after all, claims to want to write the next “great American songbook.” Singer D.S. Moltz, at times transforming into a fierce, guitar-toting preacher, belted out tunes from the band’s sinfully-good release, “Old Joy, New Joy,” and had the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand.

Salt and Samovar, a new Sentimentalist Magazine favorite, do neo-spiritual Americana with a certain psychedelic/garage ragtime twist (how’s that for a mouthful?) like no other, and do so with panache and the unbridled energy I’ve come to miss in live music. The band is made complete with a duo of keyboard/vocal, organ-grinding ladies, a ballsy drummer and multi-talented guitarist/bassist, all who enrich their boisterous songs with plenty of ye olde-tyme hand claps, a capella intros, and modern male/female harmonies.–MVW/photos by Eileen Murphy

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