If folk music could make you want to dance, the best bet could be found in the music of Carrie Rodriguez and Ben Sollee.
In their joint show at Memorial Hall Wednesday night, Rodriguez and Sollee charmed the audience with their energetic and soulful ballads about love and the places they call home.
Rodriguez opened the show with songs like “I Don’t Wanna Play House Anymore” and “Never Gonna Be Your Bride.” Rodriguez, daughter of folk singer David Rodriguez, said her father used to put her to sleep with political folk ballads.
“He gave me a Leonard Cohen album for my ninth birthday. As you can tell, music was a big deal in our family,” she said.
Rodriguez’s lively fiddle playing could only be described as sassy. Her deep voice and heartfelt lyrics matched well with her makeshift drums—her high heels.
Where Rodriguez was feisty, Sollee was the epitome of soul.
“Teach me baby how to keep from loving you,” he crooned in “How to See the Sun Rise.”
Sollee is on the tail end of a two-month national bicycle music tour.
“We’re trying to be green. Everyone—the drummer, my manager, and our documentarist has been traveling by bike,” Sollee said.
Sollee discussed his opposition to mountaintop coal mining, especially in the Appalachian Mountains.
“Communities there are being destroyed by what the coal industry is doing. We all use electric power, and we’re all making it worse,” he said.
Joe Kwon, cellist for the Avett Brothers, joined Sollee on stage for one song, before Rodriguez joined Sollee for their final set together.
A cover of Cat Steven’s “Wild World” was a crowd favorite, as was “Only a Song,” which Sollee said he wrote in a Chapel Hill hotel the last time he performed here.
After a double encore, Rodriguez and Sollee left the stage, but the audience was still dancing.
4.5 out of 5 stars
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