Leaving The Nest

Quixotic is the perfect epithet to describe Benjy Ferree. A failed filmmaker turned vagabond troubadour, who, in between stints of nannying kids for a hotshot Hollywood scriptwriter, toiling in Starbucks, and putting down roots as a bartender in Washington DC, has crafted this, his debut release of lo-fi acoustic rock, anti-folk and handcrafted porch songs.
Ferree takes an unequivocal delight in his freewheeling approach to music, skipping playfully from the jaunty opening ditty ‘In The Countryside’, to the skittish swagger of the garage rock tinged ‘Dog Killers!’. There’s an odd cocktail of Devendra Banhart, Jack White and our own Simple Kid in evidence here – Ferree is a musical curio who combines an idiosyncratic sensibility with a pleasing ear for a melody.
Take the haunting lullaby ‘Private Honeymoon’, with its gloriously sauntering strings and Ferree’s tremulous timbre weaving an intoxicating pattern. Or the bluesy flourish of the title-track with its bassy stomp and cooing chorus. Equipped with his carefree sense of abandon, Ferree can take careworn, almost half-baked musical ideas and make them come to life.
Some songs like the dirgy 'A Little At A Time' and generic 'Hollywood Sign' are beyond rescue though. The tender, parting glass of ‘In The Woods’ resurrects the lingering tail-end drift, Ferree reassuring to “go to sleep” with a acoustic hymn, just as he had done during his many nights of babysitting in the Hollywood Hills. If Ferree struggled to find his calling then he may well have found it now.