A gritty portrait of New York City, Allen Shadow's "King Kong Serenade" evokes the spirits of Kerouac, street hustlers, jazz greats, and a cavalcade of dreamers and losers. The Five Points slum aflame in Scorsese's "Gangs of New York" sizzles in Shadow's song "Sugar Street" (audio files, below).

"King Kong Serenade" is a wild "mind movie" of powerful images that make dreamscapes of Times Square, Coney Island, the Bronx, and a bevy of weighty subjects. Shadow's band features Bob Dylan guitar alum John Jackson and John Prine