shimmy: n. A kind of ragtime dance in which the whole body shakes or sways. (Oxford English Dictionary)

I don't know why, but seeing Catherine Zeta-Jones as Velma Kelly in Chicago made me go "Yowza!" and "Hubba hubba!" as she did her moxy little dance routines throughout the show. And her little flapper dresses and her obnoxiously short, yet somehow cute haircut? Oh, it's all to die for!

So when I decided to do a little extracurricular research on The Ditty Bops, an act who I heard was opening for Tori Amos (oh yes, everything is always six degrees from Her Royal Red-headed Majesty), I really had no idea what I would be in store for. Buried deep inside my heart, next to the stacks of pop melodies and feisty grrl-power anthems, there is a fondness for swingin' songs of yesteryear.

Imagine my giddy delight when I decided to sample a few tracks from the Ditty Bops - from their self-titled debut. Oh gosh! It's like a lush, plinkety melange of mandolins, fiddles, and pianos, of music spanning the first few decades of Americana, and of course a lead vocalist who sports a shock pink-dyed Velma Kelly haircut. In fact, on their site, www.thedittybops.com, there's a clip from Conan O'Brien and honestly, after that song, I knew that I had found my new favorite song for the summer of 2005.

The Ditty Bops are Abby and Amanda. I forget whom among the two has the Velma Kelly haircut, but man, she shimmies up a storm! And the song? Oh yes the song. It's aptly called "Sister Kate" with a catchy refrain of "If I could shimmy like my Sister Kate / Like a bowl of jelly on a plate" and never have I found a song to sound so eponymously representative of vintage American sounds while being absolutely progressive as well (Think Ragtime meet Hillbilly Folk all polished over with a veneer of modern irony.)

Imagine those 1950s girl group songs - like that one, "Mr. Sandman." This song bears a smashing resemblance to that, until you hit the interlude of the song where, in full force, the hillbilly fiddle, swingin' piano, and twangy ol' mandolin (or acoustic guitar), fuse together to inject this single song with a strong dose of silent movie soundtrack flair.

Every summer, it seems like I accidentally stumble upon a new gem of an artist and then add them to my roster of old faithfuls - artists who I know I can keep tabs on that won't disappoint me. With all their fabulous shimmying, cross-decadal redefinition of Americana, and Velma Kelly haircuts, I believe it is safe to say that The Ditty Bops have just gained another fan.

And hopefully a number of you will be inspired to shimmy on over to their Web site or possibly buy their album on blind faith. If that works, then I should quit my day job and quit college and probably become a full-time promoter for the band or something. But until then, I'll be shimmying like my sister Kate.