Carl Sandburg Visits Me In A Dream

Lexington, KY native Ben Sollee has been a long-time favorite of CSV, and his latest project with fellow Kentuckians Daniel Martin Moore and Yim Yames (of My Morning Jacket fame) has got me excited. The new LP, titled Dear Companion, is a call to action regarding the Mountaintop Removal coal mining taking place in the Appalachians (a portion of the proceeds from Dear Companion will benefit Appalachian Voices, an organization devoted to ending MTR and finding a better way forward).

But on to the album for now. Energetic and patient, frenetic and delicate, Dear Companion runs the gamut of human emotions. Opening track “Something, Somewhere, Sometime” enters in with the urgent strumming a single chord, then the cellos come in, then a rolling banjo streams forth, and Sollee’s voice bursts forth in its silky smooth glory. “Needn’t Say a Thing” slows things down a bit, with “Wilson Creek” bringing the album to the speed of an achingly sweet interlude.  The bouncy “Only a Song” has Sollee at his best: folksy, soulful, tongue-in-cheek, and socially conscious.The fiery “Dear Companion” breaks through with a southern fury, an amalgam of blazing strings and a damning charge by Martin Moore. Taking turns at the mic, Sollee comes back with “Try”, a finger-pluckin’ good time that’ll have you singing ‘I can’t wait to hold your little hand’ in no time.  And as the rock-a-bye instrumental “Flyrock #2″ fades slowly into “Sweet Marie” and the bonfire-friendly “It Won’t Be Long”, you realize that this is an album crafted with care and dripping with the sweet nectar of the bluegrass state

Best line: “I get a little scared / when I’m driving through the ghetto / there’s a part of me that wants to hide / there’s a part of me that wants to move in” (from “Only a Song”)

Get a copy of Dear Companion.

Listen to “Try”

Listen to “Something, Somewhere, Sometime“