Ben Sollee wants you to experience all the beauty and banality that life has to offer. It’s a serious request, and his enthusiasm is genuine. Armed with a cello, Sollee is canvassing the country, sometimes by bicycle, imploring folks to rediscover the connections between music, art, film, dance, their community, and personal relationships.
Ben Sollee first emerged with his inviting 2008-debut Learning to Bend, released on sonaBLAST! Records. Saturated with sweeping moods and visceral maturity, Learning to Bend showcased a wild mixture of musical approaches that Ben describes as “classically influenced folk with leanings of R&B and soul.” The album caught the ear of NPR’s Morning Edition, which heralded Sollee as one of the “Top Ten Great Unknown Artists of 2007.”
While people were getting their first listen of Learning to Bend, Ben was out touring with banjo player and songstress Abigail Washburn as part of the Sparrow Quartet. The ensemble, also featuring Grammy-nominated fiddler Casey Driessen and multi-Grammy winning banjoist Bela Fleck, explored the congregation of eastern and western folk music. The critically acclaimed ensemble toured throughout the world, including a US Ambassadorial tour of Tibet.
It was the cat-poles around the lake at his grandfather’s farm that inspired Learning To Bend. The frailty of those awkward looking plants standing stoutly against winds that challenged even the strongest of nearby trees is an affecting metaphor for human struggle and perseverance. Key tracks on Learning To Bend include two reactions to the current political landscape, “A Few Honest Words,” and an adaptation of Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come,” in which Ben has written updated, politically relevant verses. Other highlights of the album are the playful, soul track, “How To See the Sun Rise” and the vulnerable yet insistent “It’s Not Impossible,” where Ben laments the unfortunate status quo that “boys don’t cry.”
In 2010, Ben collaborated with fellow Kentuckians Daniel Martin Moore and My Morning Jacket front-man Yim Yames for Dear Companion. Developed and financed by Ben and sonaBLAST!, the album was sold to Sub-Pop and explored Ben’s desire to use musical encounters as a catalyst to inspire environmental stewardship.
Additionally, Ben works with regional non-profits like Appalachian Voices and Kentuckians for the Commonwealth to help preserve a cornerstone and major influence of his songwriting – his ancestral Appalachia. This past summer, Ben teamed with his Dear Companion collaborators for the Appalachian Voices tour – an eight-date tour to raise awareness about the destruction caused by mountain top removal coal mining in central Appalachia.
“I never expect to see that cello in one piece after Ben gets done playing it,” says Yim Yames. “He bows and beats and works it over with a passionate fury rarely seen. Don’t get me wrong – he can play it and hold his own with the most schooled and delicate scholars out there, but more importantly, Ben makes it live.” He continues, “Ben’s songs speak worldly wisdom and stand on their own, and he is out there in this world with those songs and that cello and that god-given voice of his, riding his bike and fighting the good fight and doing all he can to help make the world right.”
Later in 2010, Ben embarked on the “Ditch The Van Tour.” Ben and his band abandoned the comforts of a motorized vehicle and hauled their gear and instruments (yep, the cello too) across the country on bicycles. Ben’s mission was to engage a greater sense of community involvement at every performance. By huffing it on two-wheels between cities, instead of driving or flying, Ben and his crew were able to discover people and facets of our country in ways that traditional touring could not allow. “It’s not about being green or even sustainable… we want to exploit the limitations of the bicycle to slow down and experience the rich communities and people that I’ve spent years flying-by and driving past.”
Ben Sollee is not satisfied with just being a musician. It is absolutely paramount to him to incorporate collaborations, regardless of age or credentials, in his personal and professional life. “I’m such a mutt myself, biologically and socially, that it just makes sense to express that as my pedigree. In the end, that’s what folk music is all about; each of us telling our own story.”
