A couple of good ol’ Kentucky boys done well. Ben Sollee, the acclaimed cellist who got his start with Abigail Washburn’s Sparrow Quartet (featuring banjo wiz Bela Fleck), has teamed up with Cold Spring native, Daniel Martin Moore, for one of the most exceptional musical collaborations I can think of in recent years. The duo recently kicked off their tour, which will take them all over the country, including shows at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, and NPR’s World Cafe Live with David Dye in Philadelphia. They spent the day yesterday on Hamilton Avenue in Northside, for an intimate in-store performance at Shake-It Records and later packed the Northside Tavern just across the street.
They’re playing the songs off of their new record, entitled Dear Companion. Benefiting Appalachian Voices, the songs come from the issues facing mountaintop coal mining removal while inspiring to put a stop to it. The problem is most known in the Appalachian Mountains, where explosives are used to remove the mountaintops and dumping the excess rock and soil into valleys and hills. Studies have shown that by doin this, there are serious environmental and health impacts.
The album was written and recorded in 2009, and produced by none other than Jim James of My Morning Jacket, who also plays on a few tracks. They’ve assembled a full band, which includes Cheyenne Mize on the violin and guitar, and Dan Dorff on drums and piano. Familiar with the solo efforts of both artists but having not yet heard this new album, I wasn’t exactly sure what these songs would sound like. But any fan of either could’ve guessed it would bring a little of each’s sound and that it would surely be something special.
The foursome played a short but sweet set, Moore standing tall and still for most of the evening, while Cheyenne and Dorff kept the rotation going on their number of instruments, even seeing Sollee jump in on the drumkit at one point. Although the packed room made it difficult to see what each musician was doing with their fingers on their instruments, the main focus of this sound I was hearing for the first time appeared to be in the beautiful four-part vocal harmonies. What each musician brought to the stage complemented each other throughout, never too much of one thing, seemingly spread as close to perfect as possible. Moore with his signature soft-spoken voice and gentle plucking of his acoustic guitar strings, and Sollee bringing the blues and soul alive in both his voice and the way he played the cello.