Yim Yames, Ben Sollee, & Daniel Martin Moore12/29/11 - The Brown Theater
In truth, the first part of this show, while stark and beautiful, wasn't much different than the show Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore did in this same venue, two years ago. You can read that review here. They were supporting Dear Companion, the album they teamed up to record along with Yim Yames behind the console. They ran through the highlights of the album, as well as, shining moment from both artists' solo catalog.
But just as the show was began to feel long, and maudlin (aprox. the 18th song of the set) - Jim James took the stage - and a pulse of electricity was shot through the audience.
His presence on three of the songs from the Dear Companion album beefed up the performance in a way that had been lacking in the songs played before he arrived.
Then Sollee and Moore left and let rover take over. Arguably, James might be at his best when its just him, an audience, and his acoustic guitar.
The new song "Welcome Home" was breathtakingly sweet, hearing him sing it to a theater filled with fans in his hometown of Louisville. And the early MMJ ballad "Bermuda Highway" is never anything short of a show stopper. However, some of the more interesting moments in his set might've been the covers he's chose to play - including "Wild Honey" by Fruit Bats, "Ain't it Funny How Time Slips Away" by Willie Nelson, and "The World is Falling Down" by Abbey Lincoln.
As with most of his solo sets, the songs mostly consisted of My Morning Jacket tunes, and ones he wrote and performed with Monster of Folk, James' indie-rock supergroup he formed with Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis and M. Ward. It was refreshing though to James press himself out of his comfort zone, even if it was with varying states of success. The times he messed around with looping - his guitar or vocal - generally built a beautiful, textured swirl around the performance.
But his sax solo on "I Needed It Most", well, Coltrane it wasn't.
The encore performance of James calling card song (at least as of late) "Wonderful (the way I feel)" - with both Sollee on cello, and Moore on vocals was absolutely beautiful. Moore's voice compliments James' in a way that makes you wonder why would they ever not sing together.
