Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore – Dear Companion

Beginning life as an EP of songs meant to bring attention to the environmental impact of mountain top removal mining in their home state of Kentucky, under the encouragement of My Morning Jacket's Jim James, Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore's Dear Companion became a full length exploration of the life and lifestyle under threat by this devastating practice. A good thing too, as it has produced an album with the mellow beauty of a dusty sunrise, somewhere between the innovative bluegrass of Old Crow Medicine Show and the yearning soul of Bon Iver.

There is urgency in the title track, all sawed cello and prickly banjo, but Sollee and Moore are gentle rather than polemical in their approach. You Needn’t Say A Thing, Try and Only a Song seem to reassure rather than worry, celebrating a tradition in hopes of preserving it rather than prematurely bemoaning it’s loss. A distinctly warm-hearted collection. [Oisín Kealy]