(Sub Pop/Stomp)

Eco-friendly mountain folk dabblings from Kentucky duo – with a l’il help from My Morning Jacket’s Jim James

Strummer/singer Daniel Martin Moore and vocalist/cellist Ben Sollee collaborate wonderfully on new album Dear Companion, produced by “Yim Yames” (the current nom de plume of My Morning Jacket’s Jim James). Blending acoustic guitar, banjo and Sollee’s percussive cello, the pair provide a soulful take on American rural music. Opening track Something Somewhere Sometime has the sweep and pomp of your more cinematic Americana while maintaining the album’s simple, sparse instrumentation. Sollee and Moore are equally touching performing the quiet, textural My Wealth Comes To Me, while the title track provides just under two minutes of locomotive-rhythmed blues. An issue close to the heart of Sollee, Moore and James is addressed in Flyrock Blues, an indictment on the corporate greed that has resulted in the destructive practice of mountaintop coal mining. From the political to the personal, Sollee and Moore remain atmospheric and accessible throughout this collaboration – may it be the first of many.

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MATT THROWER

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