The Scene

MusicDetour.com’s commentary on music, performances, and the DC metro area music scene

“Two muses put an artistic touch on a week of lobbying to stop mountaintop removal”

By Johnny Kilroy

It’s not unusual to get a bunch of hill folk together, and to discover that a few of them brought instruments for a hasty jam.

Appalachians, in fact, carry their culture with them like a pocket knife.  They’re naked without it.  You can’t take a pocket knife into the halls of Congress, but you can’t go naked either.

That’s why many of the coalfield residents who attended the 5th annual End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington decided to be their own salty selves. When the time comes to sing, it’s okay to sing your song a little out of tune. Even if the story was lost on the suits, the air would be a little fuller for the effort. (more)

Review By:  Johnny Kilroy at http://tenthmil.com/

That sound of disappointment, from a loved one wronged, burrows into your gut deeper than any tirade.

Reeling fury was what I expected, when I heard about two Kentucky boys named Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore who were making a whole album decrying mountaintop removal.  Riding home from work one day, I gave it a listen.  I felt like a little wounded calf, stroked and cooed to ease, and then fed a mercy bullet. For the rest of the review, click here.