Live Review: Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore @ Ear X-Tacy

Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore
2/16/10, Ear X-Tacy Records (in-store performance)
Louisville, KY

Dear Companion is an album that exists as a sum greater than its considerable parts. Both Moore’s and Sollee’s debut solo albums were critically acclaimed on their own – but now both artists follow-up my merging their musical powers. And to send this release into greater orgasmic overdrive – is the fact that it is produced by the musical virtuoso behind My Morning Jacket, Jim James. There are already hundreds of reviews for Dear Companion all over the internet that will tell you how good this album is (including one I wrote for My Old Kentucky Blog, here).

After and impassioned introduction from Ear X-Tacy owner John Timmons, Sollee and Moore took the floor somewhere between the Alt. Country and Jazz sections.

The question has been how will the collaboration work live? The answer is beautifully. During their abbreviated set, in the hardly optimal acoustics of a record store, Sollee and Martin worked their way through over half of the album – with a passion and intensity that can be rivaled by few. There’s a raw quality to the voices of both men, this allows them to resonate on record and haunt in person. There is a caustic feeling to Sollee’s cello that challenges the whimsical sound of a studio and makes every note seem more urgent.

Drummer Dan Dorff, who toured with Stomp in a past life, brought fun to the set when he dusted off his stompin’ shoes for the percussion on the album’s title track, through hand claps and foot taps. And the way their voices caress “My Wealth Comes to Me”, a song which is already the most heartbreaking on the album, is a quiet reminder that we are all victims of our own optimistic sacrifice.