Pulled from David Bromberg’s private vault of recordings, Live in New York City 1982 captures the guitarist in concert with a pickup band of snappy bluegrass players he dubbed The David Bromberg Quintet, or DBQ. The performance took place at the Bitter End, one of Greenwich Village's most venerable coffeehouses. Even though it was recorded during the Reagan era, Bromberg’s set seems to reaffirm the power of the '60s coffeehouse folk tradition. The white-hot picking of the “Sally Gooden” medley and the eerily hushed playing of “Midnight House Blues” are cleverly preempted by Bromberg’s spoken intros, which are invariably droll and often hilarious. It's the best of the folk ritual: a wisecracking entertainer who wields razor-sharp talent. While other bluegrass virtuosos sometimes polish their playing to the point of anonymity, Bromberg’s music always contains an idiosyncratic element that keeps it interesting. Other highlights of the set include “When I Was a Cowboy,” “On Our Last Date,” and a rousing rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Wallflower,” a Bromberg perennial.