TeachRock

In 2010, Kentucky-based musicians Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore released the album Dear Companion on Sub Pop Records. Seeped in Folk and Bluegrass traditions, Dear Companion is a protest album at heart: Sollee and Moore pay tribute to the great Appalachian Mountains of their home while warning of their destruction through a process known as mountaintop removal. Watch them perform the title song from the album here.

Sollee and Moore are the latest musicians featured in TeachRock’s Environmental Jukebox lesson series, joining the likes of Gorillaz, Fatboy Slim, and Vic Mensa.

In this new lesson, co-authored with Appalachian Studies educator April Duckworth, students discover the science and environmental effects behind mountaintop removal and discover how community activists (including musicians!) are fighting back to stop the destructive process.

You can check out the new lesson, Mountaintop Removal in Appalachia, here.