Earlier this year, Kentucky born musicians Jim James (of My Morning Jacket), Ben Sollee, and Daniel Martin Moore sought to protest mountaintop coal removal by recording a collaborative album titled Dear Companion. If you haven’t read our review yet, you can do so here.
Basically, mountaintop removal a controversial form of coal mining in which entire mountains are literally blown up. Opponents, like ILoveMountains.org, argue that the practice is “devastating hundreds of square miles of Appalachia; polluting the headwaters of rivers that provide drinking water to millions of Americans; and destroying a distinctly American culture that has endured for generations.”
Looking to take their protest one step further, James (who goes by the moniker Yim Yames for everything outside of his My Morning Jacket duties), Sollee, and Moore have announced plans for a summer tour. They call themselves the Appalachian Voices and they’ll launch their nine-date trek starting July 22nd in Lexington, Kentucky. The tour will stick to states with a healthy population of mines and miners, such West Virginia, Tennessee, and Virginia. There will also be stops in New York, as well as appearances at the forthcoming Newport Folk Festival.
You can find the complete touring itinerary below. Tickets go on sale starting Friday, May 21st via Ticketmaster.com. A portion of the proceeds from Dear Companion as well as the upcoming tour benefit Appalachian Voices, for which the tour was named, an organization devoted to ending mountaintop removal coal mining together with diverse environmental problems impacting the central and southern Appalachian Mountains.
Appalachian Voices 2010 Tour Dates:
07/22 – Lexington, KY @ Lexington Opera House
07/23 – Knoxville, TN @ The Bijou Theater
07/25 – Charleston, WV @ Mountain Stage
07/26 – Marlinton, WV @ Pocahontas Opera House
07/28 – Charlotesvile, VA @ Jefferson Theater
07/29 – Woodstock, NY @ Bearsville Theater
07/30 – New York, NY @ Music Hall of Williamburg
07/31 – Newport, RI @ Newport Folk Festival (Yim Yames solo)
08/01 – Newport, RI @ Newport Folk Festival (Sollee & Moore)