Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore - Try
from Dear Companion
My good pal and soon to be father Matt Ables let me borrow this great album by Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore. They combine an acoustic folk style with a newer contemporary jazz feel. The album is full of guitar, banjo, cello, and unconventional percussion.
Ben Sollee often touches on social issues in his music, and this album addresses the controversial mountaintop removal process that is destroying the Appalachia. Entire mountains are blown up and literally removed for minute amounts of coal. From the album booklet:
Dirt, rocks, and trees (almost never harvested for their timber) are pushed into “valley fills,” massive earthen dam-like piles, burying the streams, forest, and wildlife. Since 1985 more than 1,200 miles of streams have been impacted by this practice. Mountaintop removal hurts Appalachia in every way, poisoning the water, the land, the air and the people. The rate at which mountains are being leveled increases every day. Dissenters are simply asking for mining to be done with respect and responsibility.
I’ve read a few magazine articles about mountaintop removal and have been horrified at it’s long term effects to nature, not to mention poverty stricken towns and people downstream. It’s an issue that I wish would get more publicity. You can read more about it here.
