Ben Sollee & Becca Stevens Band

Ben Sollee

Becca Stevens

Ben Sollee

Becca Stevens Band

Sun, Mar 15, 2015

Ben Sollee & Becca Stevens Band

About Ben Sollee: Kentucky-born cellist and composer Ben Sollee likes to keep moving. He kicked off 2014 with the release of his score for the documentary film Maidentrip. In March, he performed at Carnegie Hall as part of a tribute to Paul Simon. And you may have caught Sollee on the road supporting song-writer William Fitzsimmons throughout April and May. If you’ve seen him perform, you know it’s not to missed.

For listeners just discovering Ben’s music, you’ll find that there’s a lot more to it than songs. Over the 6 years following the release of his debut record, Learning to Bend, Sollee has told an unconventional story with his rugged cello playing. Seeking a deeper connection to communities on the road, Ben first packed his touring life onto his bicycle in 2009. Since then he has ridden over 4,000 miles from show to show. He has been invited to perform and speak on sustainability at a number of festivals including South by Southwest Music (2011) and TEDx San Diego (2012).

Closer to home, Ben has devoted a tremendous amount of energy to raising awareness about the practice of mountaintop removal mining in Central Appalachia. His 2010 collaborative album Dear Companion (Sub Pop) brought together fellow Kentucky artist Daniel Martin Moore with producer Jim James (My Morning Jacket) to shed light on the issue. In teaming up with international organizations such as Patagonia Clothing and Oxfam America, Ben has come to be known as a thoughtful activist who mobilizes his audiences to take environmental actions through the power of live music.

Like his contemporaries Chris Thile and Abigail Washburn, Sollee’s music is difficult to pin down. Following a performance at the Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series, the New York Times remarked how Sollee’s “…meticulous, fluent arrangements continually morphed from one thing to another. Appalachian mountain music gave way to the blues, and one song was appended with a fragment from a Bach cello suite, beautifully played.” It’s Ben’s quality of narrative and presence on stage that unifies his musical influences.

However, always on the move, Sollee’s musical career has expanded beyond the stage into film and TV. Shows like ABC’s Parenthood and HBO’s Weeds have placed featured Ben’s songs. In 2013, he was invited by director Mark Steven Johnson to write a song for the film Killing Season starring John Travolta and Robert De Niro. Ben has also has written music for ballet, most recently performing with the North Carolina Dance Theater in the world premiere of Dangerous Liaisons, and is currently at work on scores for several pieces of theatre. He continues touring, including headlining dates throughout the United States in the fall of 2014, and has recently returned from his first solo tour of Europe, which took him to three countries to play eleven shows in two weeks.

About Becca Stevens Band: “I wanted to use the word ‘animal’ in the album title, because writing and recording this set of songs was like taming something that had a life of its own,” Becca Stevens says of her revelatory new albumPerfect Animal (out early 2015). ”The title came from the track ‘Imperfect Animals’ which I wrote about the instinct to strive for perfection pulling against the understanding that such a condition is not humanly possible. That’s a big theme for me, and it’s something that I go through in my daily life, in my relationships, and every time I write a song.”

Perfect Animal marks a quantum musical leap for the North Carolina-bred, New York-based artist. It boasts her most personally-charged songwriting and her most urgent, impassioned singing to date, along with vivid, adventurous arrangements that show off her fiercely expressive guitar work as well as the talents of her longstanding band: keyboardist/accordionist Liam Robinson and bassist Chris Tordini, both of whom Stevens has worked with since 2005, and drummer/percussionist Jordan Perlson, who joined three years later.

Although Perfect Animal was recorded in five different studios in three states, with Stevens and band recording with producer Scott Solter (renowned for his work with the likes of St. Vincent, Spoon, and the Mountain Goats), the album’s seamless intensity remains consistent throughout. “That same push and pull that defines ‘Imperfect Animals’ helped me make this album what it is,” she explains. ”It wasn’t a quick, easy birth; it was a long labor of love. We worked on it for over a year, recording in different places and putting all the pieces together as they came. This was the first time that I was really hands-on with the technical side of making a record. I handled a lot of the editing myself which was grueling at times, but it was also extremely rewarding, as I learned a ton, and I can truthfully say that at the end, even after knowing every track inside out I’m not tired of it, I still love it, and I’m very proud of every single piece.”

“The recording process was an intense experience,” Stevens adds. “I recorded my vocal tracks, backgrounds included, in a one-week marathon at the very end, which I think gave my singing an edge. It was physically and emotionally extreme to focus on one thing for ten or twelve hours a day for a week, and there were times in the studio where I was on the verge of tears, mentally and physically exhausted, but I was able to sing through it. And because I felt so inspired and so invested in this project, by the next morning I’d feel refreshed and ready to do it all over again.”

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  • Doors

    6:00 PM
  • Show

    8:00 PM
  • Price

    $12 Advance

    $15 Day of Show

    GA Standing Room

SHOWINGS

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