Published Thursday, Feb. 25, 1999 The band, which includes Sharon native Bernie Dresel on drums, won for pop performance by a duo or group with vocal for its cover of Louis Prima's "Jump, Jive 'An Wail," and pop instrumental performance for updating Santo and Johnny's 1959 tune "Sleepwalk."
The band's "The Dirty Boogie" lost to Madonna in the pop album category.
Setzer, the former Stray Cats guitarist and singer, pioneered the back to swing movement. Amassing a 16-member band, he put out two albums that didn't do much commercially, but plugged away on the road, taking a loss for a while just to keep the band alive.
But "The Dirty Boogie" took off last summer when "Jump, Jive An' Wail" blasted out of radio stations. The album slipped out of Billboard magazine's top 100 chart this month after more than half a year and selling more than 1 million copies.
"After six years of blazing the trail people started looking at us as a movement and not just an oddity," Dresel said in a July interview while visiting his parents, Bernard and Marilyn, in Sharon.
Dresel has been with the band since the beginning, fitting in recording and live work around session gigs for Brian Wilson, Keiko Matsui former Police guitarist Andy Summers, as well as television and commercial work.
He said he's committed to the band. "I like what I'm doing. It's not just a gig."
Also of local note, the Del Sinchak band, based in Youngstown, lost to Jimmy Sturr, as the band members had predicted. Sturr has ruled the Polka Album category for more than a decade, save a three-year stint when Walter Ostanek took home the prize.
Guitarist Paul Jacobson, Hermitage and saxophonist Joe Colapietro are with Sinchak's band, which was nominated for "Let the Sunshine In."
In an interview last month, Sinchak and Jacobson said they were honored just to be nominated. "There's only about 10 voting members in this area that I know of," said Sinchak of members of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. "To be nominated we had to get votes from outside the Youngstown-Sharon area."
Ostanek, nominated for "Memories," calls Hermitage his second home because of friends Johnny and Martha Krizancic.
Of regional note, Warren, Ohio, native Jerry Douglas lost in the country instrumental performance category -- he was nominated twice — to Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder. Cleveland's Robert Lockwood Jr. lost to Otis Rush for traditional blues album, and the Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Christoph van Dohnanyi lost to Pierre Boulez for orchestral performance.
