Benjy Ferree Live At The Bellhouse

I have an affinity for artists like Benjy Ferree - the ones who can't be contained within one genre, who don't quite fit in anywhere. Ferree's new album, Come Back To The Five And Dime, Bobby Dee, Bobby Dee is a good one, an amalgalm of rock, blues, soul, with a little T. Rex thrown in for good measure. But the kind of music he plays is not quite fashionable, and at his show at the Bellhouse in Brooklyn this past Friday night, he saw the barriers in front of him in connecting to an audience, and was a little shaken - and at his best, a bit defiant.

Fronting a five piece band, Ferree was opening for Tim Fite, a fact that a semi-heckler would not quit reminding Ferree of for most of his set. Ferree's strongest asset is his voice, a wonderfully versatile instrument capable of rock and soul assertion as well as delicate subtlety. And when he played the strongest songs from his new album, such as "Fear," that voice was used to great effect.

But for too much of the set, Ferree seemed distracted - in his own head, the worst place for a performer to be. Playing for a typically reserved indie rock crowd, Ferree seemed unsure of how to connect. Ironically, it was the Tim Fite fan/heckler that finally freed Ferree from the tyranny of his own mind and prodded him to play his best music of the night.

Ferree is clearly a talented artist, but if he's going to have a chance to succeed, he's going to have to extend himself much further. There's an exuberance within Ferree - he plays for love - that was not quite on display on Friday night. The guy is soulful, but he plays in a genre that isn't completely comfortable with the unfettered, sometimes messy emotions that soul conjures. Once Ferree summons the courage to put himself completely out there, it's quite possible that this already fine artist will become something far more than fine.