Sean Kershaw & the New Jack Ramblers at the Treehouse at 2A

Brooklyn has a country music scene, and one of its strongest revivalists is Sean Kershaw. Raised in a military family, he was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and lived throughout the United States and overseas. Deciding as a young adult to make a career of music, he busked his way from New Orleans west to Los Angeles and San Francisco, north to Seattle, east to Chicago, mid-country to St. Louis, and eventually east, where he settled in New York City. From 1996 through 2003, Kershaw played rockabilly in the Blind Pharaohs. In 2001, he began leading his own side project, Sean Kershaw & the New Jack Ramblers, singing primarily cover songs. By 2007, this became Kershaw's main project, playing his original songs along with some country covers. Befitting its Brooklyn roots, Sean Kershaw & the New Jack Ramblers released its first and so far only album, Coney Island Cowboy, in 2009; Kershaw also released an EP, 2013's The Aussie Sessions.

The New Jack Ramblers can be a loose collective of musicians and tonight, at Tom Clark's Sunday night series at the Treehouse at 2A, Kershaw's band consisted of guitarist Seth Kessel, bassist Skip Ward, and drummer Dave Dawson. Kershaw sang his story-songs through sweet melodies in an unpolished baritone while his band provided honky tonk swagger and old-time rock and roll with a taste of western swing, jump blues, and Americana. The band's secret weapon was in Kessel's slinky, slippery guitar leads that spiked Kershaw's songs with flash and vigor. Brooklyn is a long way from all the traditional country-music hubs, but Sean Kershaw & the New Jack Ramblers lead a movement that insures that this city is at least on the country music map.