Uncle Monk is Tommy Ramone/Erdelyi’s bluegrass duo with Claudia Tienan. Obviously, a Ramone playing bluegrass sparks curiosity, but the album is sound, even charming in its homespun fragility. Their voices are limited, but they ring like the voices of real people. Lyrically, the songs occasionally betray their big city origins—“Home Sweet Reality” employs the vocabulary of modern psychiatry, and “Urban Renewal” talks about reading The New York Times and “bourgeois dreams.” That undercurrent of modernity gives the album a distinctive touch. Would this album get any attention outside its region if Tommy Ramone wasn’t involved? Probably not, but he and Tienan have made a record that can stand the scrutiny his name helps them get.