The Felice Brothers Concert Review from Altohio.com

Album Review
Brian Ahnmark
Q: What do you get when you combine five hyperactive Americana musicians straight out of the Catskill Mountains, copious amounts of booze, and a stage measuring roughly 10 feet by 10 feet?

A: Assorted debauchery, off-key singalongs, and the wanton destruction of property.

And a damn good time.

The Felice Brothers invaded Rumba Cafe in Columbus on April 28, bringing their homegrown brand of classic American songcraft in tow. The loose gig felt like an impromptu backyard party with family and friends; fitting, since the band got its start playing porch concerts during barbecues at their father's house.

There was no opening act, and no need for one. Since 2006, The Felice Brothers (Ian Felice on guitar/vocals, James Felice on accordion/keyboard/vocals, Christmas Clapton on bass, Dave Turbeville on drums, and Greg Farley on fiddle/washboard/kitchen sink) have released five independent or limited albums – one of them recorded in a converted chicken coop – and two major label records. The band opened appropriately with “Greatest Show On Earth” from 2008's The Felice Brothers, igniting a slow burn of songs about love, loss and alcohol that would soon erupt into a full-on blaze.

The band launched into “Frankie's Gun!” - perhaps their most-beloved tune - eight songs in. Farley, a gifted multi-instrumentalist, broke out the washboard much to the crowd's delight. From there the insanity only escalated. James Felice shouldered the accordion for “Goddamn You, Jim,” then introduced the next piece as “a very serious song with serious themes.”

Its title: “Whiskey In My Whiskey.” Although James technically handled lead vocals, in truth the audience took the reins.

The Felice Brothers made no attempt to contain their youthful vigor within the confines of Rumba Cafe's ridiculously small stage. James and Farley routinely swapped instruments; at one point, James stepped off the stage to play an organ that simply wouldn't fit on the riser; Ian repeatedly leaped onto the bass drum while playing guitar, swatted at the cymbals with his bare hands and toppled mic stands; “Run Chicken Run” featured some interpretive dance from Ian during a spirited accordion break by his brother.

It all boiled over during set-closer “Helen Fry.” Busted accordion keys ended up on the ground while Ian dragged screaming feedback out of his guitar by aiming a microphone directly at the pickups. Meanwhile, Farley wielded his washboard like a sledgehammer, absolutely beating the shit out of Turbeville's drum cymbals. It was an electrifying scene of primal, savage release.

Incredibly, the band managed to return to the stage for a one-song encore, performing Townes Van Zandt's “Two Hands.” As Ian sang, “I got two hands, I wanna clap my hands together... And I ain't gonna think about trouble anymore,” it felt like a musical tonic extinguishing the embers of fury that had just ravaged the stage.

Altohio.com

Nothing Gold Can Stay gets another positive review

The Duke & the King, named for the duo of confidence tricksters in Huckleberry Finn, will steal your heart.
Nothing Gold Can Stay, their debut release, is shot through with sweet melancholy. Listen closely enough and it will tear your soul -- or just sing along and enjoy the ambience. There aren't any pyrotechnics here, mostly just straight country songs and, although it's a crowded field -- The Avett Brothers, The Felice Brothers -- to name but two, Duke bring a quiet understated elegance to the genre. Simone Felice left his famous brothers in 2009 and formed the band with Robert "Chicken" Burke. Felice delivers his lines in a downbeat manner and the record sounds a bit like you're listening them outside their rehearsal room. Water Spider is a wonderful song with the memorable line "Jesus walked on water, but so did Marvin Gaye/ And Harriet didn't you hear they never caught her, she just slipped away, she skipped away ..." which could be a homage to Harriet Tubman, an African-American Union spy during the American Civil War. There's hardly a bad song on the record but the best is saved for last in One More American Song. Sentimental, sure, but never mawkish. -- Matthew Burbidge Toronto Mail and Guardian

The Felice Brothers at Mountain High Music Festival

Mighty High Mountain Fest
The Mighty High Mountain Fest 2010 will take place Friday-Sunday and will feature the Dark Star Orchestra, New Riders of the Purple Sage and the Felice Brothers, among others.

Friday's lineup includes Reflections, Unexplained Bacon and the Mixtape. Saturday's includes the Felice Brothers, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Peter Rowan, Rob Cannillo & Friends, the Big Takeover and the Ronnie Penque Band. Sunday's acts are New Riders of the Purple Sage, Peter Rowan, Commander Cody, Reflections, the Johnny Markowski Band, Basement Generals and McMule, among others.

Hours for the three-day, two-night festival are 9 p.m.-2 a.m. Friday and noon-11 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Tent camping passes and RV parking are available. Glass bottles, pets, firearms and fireworks are not allowed in the park.

The Felice Brothers and The Duke and the King This Weekend

The Felice Brothers will be playing at the Mighty High Mountain Festival on Saturday in Tuxedo NY, and the Duke and the King will be in North Adams, Ma on the same night playing at the Hunter Center at Mass Moca.

It'll be a good night in a very slow summer tour wise with both acts.

I'll be attending the show in North Adams.

Video for Dean Jones (with the Felice Brothers)" Isthmus be the Pirate Waltz"

The Felice Brothers get compared favorably to Rolling Stones Exile on Main St

In London Telegraph's music blog
here is the relevant text in Neil McCormack's review of the reissued "Exile on Main St"

Digital recording techniques favour perfection, where every beat and note can be separated and brought into perfect sync with every other, so that even commercial rock bands now (from U2 to Coldplay to Kings Of Leon) tend to sound slightly automated, with only the singer really bringing a human dimension. I’m not saying you can’t find those qualities on contemporary records (check out, for example, The Felice Brothers, whose virtues I have often extolled in this blog) but, for some reason, you don’t hear them on mainstream commercial radio anymore. Its as if programmers think such messy humanity might scare off their listeners. And yet, here the Stones stand, number one again, with their greatest and most glorious mess.
link

Simone Felice pays tribute to Levon Helm on his Birthday

“Levon Helm is the patron saint of Woodstock. So much more than a groundbreaking musician/drummer or a voice on the radio. He’s a back-mountain mystic, an enduring force of nature, like a kung fu master or a heavy rain in the Catskills. In my wildest pipe-dreams as a kid growing up here, doing music, writing songs, I could never have imagined him smiling up at me from his wooden kit after being asked to sing ‘The Weight’ with him and Larry and Co. to my great suprise after opening a ramble. How lucky are we to have his drums still beating, his big heart beating strong, his voice still echoing off these funky old mountains of ours after all these years?

Link

"Forever Green", The Felice Brothers, Stagger Lee, Stagolee, and Freedom

I've been listening to a lot of old blues lately, most specifically Robert Johnson, and have grown to appreciate the sense of freedom in his songs. They are really the very first rock and roll songs, and have gotten me rediscovering other familiar blues songs like Lloyd Price's "Stagger Lee". Stagger Lee is a urban myth, legend whatever about a black man "Stagger Lee" who shoots Billy Lyons, because he snatched Stagger Lee's Stetson Hat. The hat is a symbol of "freedom" and ever since "Forever Green" was released i thought about the connection.

I found this article on Stagger Lee and figured i would post it. Stagger Lee or some version of this story has been covered by dozens of great artists over the past 100 years including Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash.

The Symbolic Meaning of the Stetson Hat

Copyright © 2002-2009
by James P. Hauser except where otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

What is the significance of the Stetson hat which was at the center of the dispute between Stagger Lee and Billy DeLyon? In his book Stagolee Shot Billy, Cecil Brown explained that, during the late nineteenth century, African American men wore Stetsons as symbols of masculinity, status, and power. In other words, these hats were symbols of manhood. I would take this idea a step further and argue that the Stetson was not just a symbol of manhood, but also of freedom. I make this assertion because the black male's manhood is closely intertwined with his freedom and his struggle for freedom. Slaves were not permitted the status of manhood by their slave owners--an adult male slave was considered to be a boy, not a real man. Therefore, if the Stetson was a symbol of manhood, a Stetson on the head of a former slave or son of a former slave certainly must have also been a symbol of freedom. By displaying Stetson hats on their heads, African American men were proudly showing that the days of slavery were over and they were now free men.

But even after the slaves were emancipated, they were not truly free as they faced an oppressive system of segregation which became the law of the land. White people thought of blacks as inferior and whites degraded African American men by referring to them as boys. Bluesman Big Bill Broonzy wrote a song of protest about being treated this way. He titled it "When Will I Get to be Called a Man?" Of course, Broonzy's real concern was not with being called a man, but with being treated like one.

It's clear that, even after slavery was abolished, the black man's manhood continued to be tied to his struggle for freedom--a struggle which would become quite violent during the 1960s. If we again look at the Stetson from the perspective of it being a symbol of manhood and freedom, and this time change the focus of our attention from the late nineteenth century to the twentieth century's Jim Crow era, we can see the fight over the hat between Billy and Stagger Lee as representing the African American man's fight for freedom from white oppression. And Stagger Lee's defeat of Billy may be seen as symbolizing victory for African Americans, as Stagger Lee regains the symbol of manhood and freedom, the Stetson hat.
I find the song "Stagger Lee" to be an excellent metaphor for the civil rights struggle. Let me explain. Billy's theft of Stagger Lee's symbol of manhood, the Stetson, may be viewed as the establishment of the Jim Crow system, a set of laws and customs which stole the freedom of newly emancipated African Americans and subjected them to a system of oppression which virtually amounted to a new form of slavery. And the fight between Stagger Lee and Billy for the hat would then correspond to the many violent confrontations between blacks and whites during the civil rights era. Stagger Lee's defeat of Billy may then symbolize victory for African Americans, with the Stetson serving as the victor's prize of freedom. To complete the metaphor, Billy's death can be seen as the death of Jim Crow and the abolishment of segregation.

and the lyrics to "Forever Green"

My shirt is sweaty
in my smokey cheverolet
reelin from cocaine
i hear crickets talking
now hear pool sticks chalking
i must be in some barroom baby

well the band thats following me
i can hear them hollerin'
dying to catch me
i could run forever
if youd undo this leather
strap around me
oh please
take me up
to your room

grandma was a country singer
id have loved to have seen her
making some barroom swing
i could see you doing that
gotta stetson hat
and electric guitar to sing with

may you stay forever green
like the country between us
far after our hands unfold
and i bid farewell
and that old stare, well
lead into the narrow room

oh please
take me up
to your room

Quote of the day

A self made man is boring, a self made king, is fabulous-Greil Marcus

The Felice Brothers at Mighty High Mountain Festival

Mighty High Mountain Fest
Category: Music
..Mighty High Mountain Festival in Tuxedo New York has a special on this week. Buy your one day Festival pass for Saturday, May 29 to see The Felice Brothers and pay no service fee. Ten day forecast reads sunny weather! http://tickets.createavibe.com/

From The Felice Brothers Myspace Page

Undercover.Com on Simone Felice Touring Australia

Simone Felice (Felice Brothers/Duke & King) Heads To Australia

by Tim Cashmere - May 20 2010
link

It’s a never-ending flow of exciting tour news today, with Simone Felice of The Felice Brothers and The Duke & The King heading to Australia in June.

Felice is a brutally honest singer/songwriter with a steady fan base that has followed him through his various projects and is renowned for his powerful solo performances.

Last year his duo The Duke & The King cancelled their Australian shows due to illness, but now fans will get the chance to see this upstate New Yorker in the flesh playing songs from his entire back catalogue.

Be sure to check him out at one of the following gigs:

JUNE
9 - The Annandale Hotel, Sydney
10 - Northcote Social Club, Melbourne
11 - Northcote Social Club, Melbourne

And for those of you who want more, here’s a fancy little teaser of what he’s all about:

Two Felice Brothers Shows Added

at-Jul-24 Cooperstown, NY Brewery Ommegang

Show is at the Belgium Brewery with a lot of camping space.

Link to Brewery site



Wed-Jul-28 Montreal, QC Il Motore
The bands first headline show in Canada.

Simone Felice Live at Drew's

LIVE@DREW'S
Ringwood, NJ   

Simone Felice
Saturday, May 22 @ 6PM
Less than one week to go until Simone Felice makes his journey down from the Northern Catskills. As always, Simone will be bringing his great songs, stories and charisma. If you haven't seen Simone before, either with The Felice Brothers or The Duke and The King, you owe it to yourself to be here.

His songs are magical. . . destined to become part of the 'Americana' landscape. His stage presence will captivate you. He's the real deal. Last year's Duke and The King show was overwhelmingly voted to be the best show of the year. Saturday promises to be a great one as well.
Remember it's a $20 donation in advance and $25 at the door. The very well-received tee shirts are also available.
Hope you all can make it.
-Drew

Drew Eckmann
247 Cupsaw Dr.
Ringwood, N.J. 07456

 

 



PRESS

"The performers he presents, tend to attract fans devoted enough to travel to New Jersey from neighboring states as well as from Ohio, Michigan, California, Canada and even England...his living room might even become legendary. "  NY Times


UPCOMING SHOWS

Simone Felice Ringwood, NJ Sat May 22 10 06:00 PM  
Willie Nile Ringwood, NJ Sat Jun 05 10 06:00 PM

Positive Review for The Felice Brothers Mix Tape CD

From 24Kevin



http://24kevin.wordpress.com/2010/05/17/cd-review-the-felice-brothers-mix-tape/



The Felice Brothers are differentiated from most popular music by their use of nontraditional instruments like accordions, washboards and fiddles.  They are defined by a lead singer with a striking vocal resemblance to Bob Dylan.  They are elevated beyond most other popular music by the quality of their songwriting.

In a lot of modern popular music, artists seem content to write lyrics that rhyme and fall into a standard rhythm.  The Felice Brothers give their lyrics much more attention and the quality comes through on their tracks.  The lyrics on their recently released Mix Tape are not their strongest songwriting performance but remain miles ahead of plenty of other, more popular, artists.

The CD was born as a collection of cut tracks from the band’s previous studio album, Yonder is the Clock, to be given to fans for free at shows.  Predictably, the band’s label, Team Love, caught wind of this and decided that the album should have be commercially released.

After listening to both Yonder and Mix Tape, it is hard to argue that many of the cut tracks should have been left on the album.  Both the music and lyrics of the former are generally superior to the latter.  That is not to say that Mix Tape does not include great examples of both.

The lyrics feature alliteration and internal rhyme not usually found in popular music, but instead reserved more for poetry and other literature.  Additionally the Felice Brothers demonstrate a great awareness of the lyrical meter and a willingness to play with it.  An obvious example would be the track “White Limo,” which chugs along at a lively rhythm reminiscent of a hoedown and features similarly energetic lyrics.  Ian Felice wails the chorus with the power of Roger Daltrey, energy of Prince and the strain of Stevie Ray Vaughan.  “White legs, white lies, white wedding gown/just a little red to paint the town,” exemplifies the Felice Brother’s style and the fun they have with their music.

Overall, the Mix Tape CD is not the best  material the Felice Brothers have ever put out, but it is certainly more compelling than the majority of popular music.  The instrumentation, rhythm and lyrics combine to create complexities that most artists are not capable of while the narrative style of most of their songs keeps them accessible to a large audience.

One More American Song gets notice in Australia

One More American Song – Simone Felice

"Another rare commodity is Simone Felice (The Felice Brothers, The Duke & The King). Felice, like Vlautin, is an acclaimed singer/songwriter, who has also had great success as a poet and experimental novelist (Goodbye Amelia, Hail Mary Full of Holes). One More American song is an example of Felice’s lyrical richness. In the song he remembers Johnny, a boy from school with fiery red hair, who, thanks to the horrors of war has become the king of bottle tops, pushing shopping carts in a parking lot. It is this kind of raw narrative that Felice pens so well. And like Vlautin, Felice is making his way to Australia for the first time too, but unfortunately Brisbane is not part of the tour… Sydney and Melbourne only. Maybe next time…"

One More Shark
Australia
http://grahamnunn.wordpress.com/2010/05/16/the-new-folk-xiii-vlautin-felice-lanegan/

Rock n Roll Quote of the Day

Music should never be harmless:

Robbie Robertson

Poster available from the Harrisburg Show

http://www.etsy.com/listing/46792023/felice-brothers-screen-printed-gigposter

check it out!

More good Pix from Harrisburg

link

the photographer is named Erin McCrackin

The NTSIB Review 5-10-10

Now This Sound is Brave


Cassette & the Felice Brothers at the Beachland Tavern in Cleveland, OH, 5.10.10
Cassette



(I'm not very familiar with their songs, so I wasn't able to construct a playlist.)

Cassette has a violinist and a cellist. These are good things. Cassette also has a keyboardist who seems to enjoy the hell out of himself and a singer whose voice really shines from time to time. These are also good things. Their songs are of the softer, more subtle variety, which A) doesn't seem like the best fit for a Felice Brothers opener and B) is not my favorite kind of music, to be honest.

Perhaps it was because they were on their last night of their tour with the Felice Brothers, but Cassette's music lacked oomph and many songs seemed not so much to end as peter out. Their set ended, however, on a highlight as the band, especially the cellist and keyboardist, let go and played their hearts into a burning crescendo. More fire like that throughout Cassette's set would serve them well.

The Felice Brothers



Playlist
(?)
Greatest Show on Earth
Love Me Tenderly
Katie Dear
Murder By Mistletoe
Stepdad
River Jordan
Fuck the News
Run Chicken Run
Goddamn You, Jim
Whiskey in My Whiskey
Honda Civic
White Limo
Endless Night
Take This Bread
Frankie's Gun!
Two Nickels (? - Farley song)
Ballad of Lou the Welterweight
Two Hands
-encore-
St. Stephen's End
Dancehall
Helen Fry

As soon as the Felice Brothers took the stage, it was obvious they were several sheets to the wind. This is not a bad sign where the Felice Brothers are concerned. If you want a neat, orderly show, the Felice clan was never going to be your best bet. Still, no one fell off the small stage, and the only casualties were some booze and a key from James Felice's accordion (leaving the instrument on the floor near a dancing Ian Felice was probably not the greatest idea).

I've been to a few Felice shows now and can tell you they are consistent in their chaos. They pepper their always crowd-pleasing rabble-rousing tunes like "Frankie's Gun!" and "Run Chicken Run" with sing-a-longs like "Whiskey in My Whiskey" and their cover of Townes Van Zandt's "Two Hands" with new songs, like "Dancehall" and the funked-up "Honda Civic" and slow numbers that showcase Ian Felice's stellar songwriting. This night's "Greatest Show on Earth" was the most spirit-raising version I've witnessed so far, and I was immensely pleased to hear my new favorite, the as-yet-unreleased "Endless Night", which is a bit of a departure in sound and just beautiful. Always a family affair, whether blood or adoptive, the lead duties were shared by James Felice, Greg Farley and Christmas/Josh/whatever-he's-calling-himself-now, though the majority of tunes are always carried by Ian Felice - and rightfully so with his aforementioned songwriting skills and worn, dusty voice. They also brought Cassette singer Samantha Jones on stage to share vocals on "Ballad of Lou the Welterweight".

The Tavern at the Beachland is a just a small bar with a stage at one end, making it an ideal setting for a Felice Brothers show as they always excel in intimate quarters where they can feed off the vibe of the audience. This night's crowd was into it, and there were a number of avid fans littered throughout the room, which was heartening for the Brothers' first show in the CLE.

Felice Brothers shows are always a good recommendation if you want a ramshackle good time and are especially illustrative of the joy and abandon that music can (and should) encompass if you are used to more removed shows in larger venues.
Posted by Now This Sound Is Brave at 9:35 AM 2 comments

Mixed Review From The Wiltern Theater

The review was written by Dylan ballwasher Gustavo Turner for LA Weekly, who was likely going through an epileptic seizure waiting for
Jakob to hit the stage. The whole show was reviewed very well, Jakob is not the worlds most charismatic performer, and a victim of a near career croaking mic jacking 15 years ago.

Here is the text of the Felice Brothers related part of the Review:

The juvenile Felice Bros. have a very distinctive, if slightly melodramatic, vocalist in Ian Felice, a relaxed keys man in his brother James, and a manic fiddler who acts as a kind of jocky hype-man ("How about that Jakob Dylan??? Uhhhh???"). Their act is somewhere in the ramshackle intersection of Tom Waits, The Pogues and somebody's dad's vinyl collection of the works of Dylan the Elder from 1963 to 1980.
They couldn't pull it off at the sit-down Wiltern, though one can imagine they would be a fantastic bar band. The Felices work best when kicking up a beat and singing their age ("Run Chicken Run": "She's the fairest of them all/ She loves her Adderall"), than when trying to get all Biblical and deep.

Baltimore Pics are in of The Felice Brothers at The Ottobar

LINK to PHOTOBUCKET

The Felice Brothers Get More Raves from Our Folk Blog

THURSDAY, MAY 13, 2010

The Felice Brothers
Straight from the Catskill Mountains, the racous and calloused sound of The Felice Brothers has been ripping through the Capital Region and beyond for the better part of the past decade. Writing about them in here seems almost redundant as all of my friends know them well already, some of them personally. Nonetheless, they put on the best show I've ever seen at Valentines the last time they came to town. To me, they are one of the most original bands to come out of the area. The folk-loreish lyrics and stripped down instrumentation mixed with the energetic rhythm section make for a uniquely raw listening experience. All the drunken sing-alongs and "sha na na" anthams set this band on the fast track to becoming huge, and not just in the underground. Though I am partial to the old self-titled album, the new record, Yonder Is The Clock, is starting to grow on me as well. I've posted some old live videos here for those who haven't seen them before to get a taste of what The Felice Brother's experience is like. Cheers!

Link

Cleveland Setlist is In

1. Opening number... No clue what this song's called. Never heard it before. It had the words "fire on the mountain" in it, but wasn't the Grateful Dead or Bill Monroe songs. Guessing it's an Ian original? 
2. Greatest Show on Earth
3. Love Me Tenderly
4. Katie Dear
5. Murder by Mistletoe
6. Stepdad
7. River Jordan/Fuck the News
8. Run Chicken Run
9. Goddamn You Jim
10. Whiskey in My Whiskey
11. Honda Civic
12. White Limo
13. Endless Night
--Band just told the crowd to shut the fuck up
14. Take This Bread
15. Frankie's Gun
16. Farley's Song
17. Ballad of Lou the Welterweight (w/ the girl singer from Cassette)
18. Two Hands
 
Encore
St. Stephen's End
Dance Hall
Helen Fry

thanks Kate.

Another Dublin Review is In

The Duke & And The King were in Dublin for the last show of their British/Irish tour. And so it was off to The Academy to find out it was actually the underground part that we, and the band, were corralled in to. Simone Felice wasn't happy but, after letting his feelings been known about his London agent putting everyone into the pit of Hades, things went heavenly.

It's hard not to use religious imagery when describing my first time seeing The Duke & The King (and Simone since The Felice Brothers' magnificent show in The Sugar Club in 2008). After hearing the main man singing "If You Ever Get Famous" back-to-back with "The Morning I Get To Hell" I could have finished my pint of stout, grabbed my coat, and went to the next pub happy. However, the other members had even more to bring to the congregation. Even though there were only three more persons in the band, and maybe 100 people in the audience, you had to look around and wonder who was making whichever angelic sound was resting on your ears. Every voice had that kind of spooky. Of course, you could also be asked for a dance and a twirl by whichever band member didn't have a part to play at that particular time. The spirits were always high.

Apart from almost all the "Nothing Gold Can Stay" album there were also cover versions of Felice Brothers' songs alongside a spiritual version of the Neil Young song Helpless.

A quite beautiful night.

http://keeponkeepingonnicodemus.blogspot.com/2010/05/duke-king-academy-2.html

Loves Me Tenderly from Harrisburg

thanks to Link

Felice Brother kinda nominated for Americana Award

The American Music Association has announced it's 2010 award nominees and while the Felice Brothers were shut out, The Avett Brothers "I and Love and You" was nominated for song of the year. The Track features Simone Felice. We wish them good luck. (Even though "Marie" was the best song I heard this year.

The full list of nominees;
The Americana Honors and Awards ceremony, celebrating its ninth year, is slated for Sept. 9 at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, with returning host Jim Lauderdale and a house band led by Buddy Miller. The awards show is the centerpiece of the annual Americana Festival and Conference. Celebrating its 11th year, the event takes place in Nashville, Sept. 8 - 11.

Nominees are selected by members of the Americana Music Association. The Honors and Awards show will also recognize Lifetime Achievements and bestow awards in Performance, Songwriting and Instrumentalist and other important categories. Additional honorees and performers will be announced in the coming months.

2010 Americana Music Awards Nominees:

ALBUM OF THE YEAR

'The List,' Rosanne Cash
'A Friend of a Friend,' Dave Rawlings Machine
'Downtown Church,' Patty Griffin
'A. Enlightenment B. Endarkenment (Hint: There is no c),' Ray Wylie Hubbard

ARTIST OF THE YEAR

Ryan Bingham
Patty Griffin
Levon Helm
Steve Earle
Ray Wylie Hubbard

DUO GROUP OF THE YEAR

The Avett Brothers
Carolina Chocolate Drops
Band of Heathens
Dave Rawlings Machine

INSTRUMENTALIST OF THE YEAR

Buddy Miller
Dave Rawlings
Will Kimbrough
Sam Bush

NEW & EMERGING ARTIST

Sarah Jarosz
Ryan Bingham
Hayes Carll
Corb Lund
Joe Pug

SONG OF THE YEAR

'The Weary Kind,' written by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett, performed by Ryan Bingham
'Drunken Poets Dream,' written by Hayes Carll and Ray Wylie Hubbard, performed by Ray Wylie Hubbard
'Ruby,' written by Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch, performed by Dave Rawlings Machine
'I and Love and You,' written and performed by the Avett Brothers

Watch Out Simone Felice This Douchebag could be Coming for You

Radio/TV personality and Fox News assmuncher Glenn Beck has finally gotten around to listening to Bruce Springsteen(but as "Sidney" in "White Men Can't Jump" says he "Cant't hear it"). Springsteen's iconic protest song "Born in the USA", which shares an almost identical theme with Simone Felice's "One More American Song", is about a soldier coming home from war amidst the moral decay of a superpower. Beck also called out the Beatles "Revolution" and was surprised to find out that Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" was also a protest song, (apparently this donkey has been living under a rock for a forty years).

Pics From Harrisburg

more great pics from this show @ LINK

Great Simone Felice Interview and Mountain performance

link

Nice promo for Simone's Show in Barcelona

Simone Felice
Events in Barcelona - Concerts
Written by Aisha Prigann   
Monday, 10 May 2010 19:27
From Bcninternet blog

http://www.bcninternet.com/blog/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=117%3Asimone-felice-eng&catid=3%3Aconcerts&Itemid=16&lang=en

It's funny to think that once upon a time Simone Felice was a teen punk rocker. At 18 he even played the notorious CBGB's with his then band 8Body Trunk. Perhaps it was a way to rebel against a childhood spent amongst the shiny streams and green fields of the Catskills. But the rebellion didn't last long, and Simone returned home, which is a good thing for all of us. Nowadays, he lives in the Catskills, about a mile from where he grew up, and composes his songs in a mountain cabin. Listening to his music - which he calls "dirty Catskill Mountain soul" - you can picture the tranquil sunset over a rugged mountain range. A campfire, faces flickering in the dark, crickets keeping time. This is profoundly American music at its very lyrical and reflective best. The Felice Brothers, the band he formed with his brothers Ian and James and friend Doc Brown in 2001, was the first excursion into "mountain soul", but critical success caught up with Simone Felice when he released Nothing Gold Can Stay, an album he recorded with Bobbie Bird as The Duke & The King. Felice's literary projects - poetry and monologues he performed at the Nuyorican Café, short stories, and his debut novel Black Jesus - have earned him comparisons with other poet-singer-songwriters like Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave (a little early to bestow such an honour, but that's just my opinion). The Guardian writes "we are in the presence of a rare, fiery brilliance" and NPR raves "this album is so authentic, it's strangely uplifting, it's almost like you're greeting the sunrise..."
The sun rises tomorrow evening at Sidecar.
Tuesday, May 11th at 10:30pm
Sidecar, Plaça Reial 7 (Gothic Quarter, Metro: Liceu)
Tickets: 14 EUR
 

The Devil is Real: May 7 2010 Simone Felice Solo Zaragoza Performance

LINK

The Duke and the King are home, but one last review is in

The Duke & The King
Posted by Nicodemus on 4 May 2010 - 2:06am.
When: 
April 30
Where: 
The Academy2/Dublin/Ireland
Comments: 
An underground venue just like Hades, but things went heavenly. Look, it's hard not to use religious imagery when describing my 1st time seeing The Duke & The King (and Simone since The Felice Brothers' magnificent show in The Sugar Club in 2008). After hearing the main man singing "If You Ever Get Famous" back-to-back with "The Morning I Get To Hell" I could have finished my pint of stout, grabbed my coat, and went to the next pub happy. However, the other members had even more to bring to the congregation. Even though there were only 3 more persons in the band,you had to look around and wonder who was making whichever angelic sound was resting on your ears. Every voice had that kind of spooky. Of course, you could also be asked for a dance and a twirl by whichever band member didn't have a part to play at that particular time. The spirits were always high. A quite beautiful night.
The Audience: 
75 to 100. Very well behaved. Those who went, wanted to be there.
Food & Drink: 
A good enough pint of Guinness is all I ask for, and a good enough pint is what I got.
It Made Me Think...: 
Why aren't these guys more popular?

By Nicodemus @ theword.uk

Katie Dear from Harrisburg

The Felice Brothers

Penn Live

Penn Live's Photos from Harrisburg

Photos By Collette Cope
Pennlive.com

Baltimore: 5/7/10 Setlist

Notes
Cassette opened and played a nice set featuring songs from mostly their EP "Shining Like a New Dime"


Greatest Show on Earth-best version ever
Tenderly
Katie Dear
Murder by Mistletoe
Ambulance man
Stepdad
River Jordan
Fuck the news
FrankieS gun  
Goddamn you jim
White Limo 
Whiskey in my Whiskey: Ian singing because James Voice was shot, Ian added his own lyrics, crowd way heavy into it.
Honda Civic (really good number, almost like a Beach Boys song, with like movements. Weird but a great live number. Written by Josh
and Ian
Chicken Wire   
Run Chicken
Two Nickels(Farley)
Cooperstown
Take this bread
Encore 
st. Stephen 
DanceHall
two hands (with Cassette)

 

Harrisburg Setlist- Donald

Opening jam-Greatest show
Tenderly
Murder by mistletoe
Katie Dear
Stepdad is so Bad
Jordan-Fuck the News
Frankies
Goddamn Jim
Whiskey
Honda Civic
White Limo
Run Chicken
Farley Tune ?
Take this Bread
Let me Come Home

Encores

St Stephen
Dancehall
Helen Fry

other songs on written setlist but not played include Marlboro Man, Revolver or Ambulance Man, Lou, Chicken Wire, Endless Night (!?!), Adeline Do IT(??!!)

Mindy says Endless Night was played.

James Felice Interview NPR (2010-04-23)

WKMS: The Felice Brothers perform at Murray State's Lovett Live (2010-04-23)

More on Cassette From Bakery Outlet Records

A Follow up on my previous Post on Samantha Jones
Cassette

Listen to Cassette Songs:

Home
Hold You
Access To Me
North of the Carolinas



Cassette is Samantha Jones. Though the live and recorded manifestations of Cassette may take on many forms--sometimes alone and unguarded with just acoustic guitar and voice, while at other times backed by a rotating band of friends--the songs and the warm, compassionate, inviting feelings projected from them are wholly Samantha.

Known by many from her days with bands like Rumbleseat, Bitchin', and Crustaceans, Samantha's work in Cassette is a departure from her past. All defenses have been lowered, and we are welcomed into the heart of Samantha's experience- told in a frank, honest, and organic voice. The themes vary on the album from songs that express heartbreak in terms that even the most heartbroken can relate to, to skillfully woven narratives that make listeners feel as though the singer is giving heartfelt advice directly to them. The tracks reflect a spectrum of musical influence from the country twang of "Spring's Gone" to the jazzy lilt of "Thirst Like Water." With this self titled release, Cassette has produced a record in the vein of David Grubbs, Will Oldham, and Lucinda Williams.

On this particular manifestation, Cassette is Samantha on guitar and vocals, backed by Stirling Krusing (piano), Gabriel Galvin (drums & percussion), and Matt Radick (bass and cello), all resident musicians of Gainesville, Florida. The arrangements on the album are beautiful and complimentary. No single instrument struggles for attention, which allows the focus to fall on the songs, and Samantha's literate, insightful lyrics. Samantha has a voice that's hard to encapsulate with words. Her talent is timeless and comparable to classic singers like Billie Holiday, Janis Joplin, or Emmylou Harris. She sings so good it'll make your heart ache.

-Bakery Outlet

Interview with the Duke and the King

http://www.indielondon.co.uk/Music-Review/the-duke-the-king-the-indielondon-interview


THE Duke & The King have been picking up great reaction to their debut album Nothing Gold Can Stay which has been hailed as a classic of Americana. This soul-folk-glam ensemble mixes influences as diverse as Marvin Gaye, The Band, Smokey Robinson and Paul Simon. They take their name from two travelling hustlers in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

We caught up with The Duke (Simone Felice) and The King (Bobby ‘Bird’ Burke) on their current UK tour to talk about trashing guitars, music as ‘religion’ and the pitfalls of being famous!

Q. Which artists did you listen to when you were growing up?
Simone Felice: I grew up in an area that was really rich in the tradition of music. I grew up around Woodstock, New York in the shadow of all the music associated with that area. So, it was the first stuff I heard when I was cognizant enough to understand music aged four-years-old. My folks were playing The Beatles, Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell – it was the first music I really heard. So I just feel lucky to have grown up in the ’70s and got to hear that stuff when it was fresh and real and new.

Q. Do you enjoy mixing up musical genres as a result of these influences?
Bobby ‘Bird’ Burke: We’re really not afraid of sticking to the rules of certain stylistic boundaries. We love toying with the many beautiful forms of music we’ve been inspired by. We don’t allow boundaries to limit us.

Q. Do you consider yourself to be musical rebels?
Bobby ‘Bird’ Burke: I feel that we’re a little bit of that. We’re not afraid of taking chances inside the music genre that you sometimes get pigeon-holed into. For us, Americana is just as much Sam Cooke as it is Neil Young or Bob Dylan. And Neil Young’s Canadian! Ultimately we like to think of music as a language that everyone can understand around the planet and I think everyone vibrates more or less the same way. We don’t feel limited by vibrating under the rules of one format!

Q. The Duke and the King’s songs convey a yearning and nostalgia for childhood and youth. Where do those feelings come from?
Simone Felice: When we’re children the world hasn’t got its claws into us and we still believe in magic. When you’re a child you’re just enamoured by the simple things and you have wonder in your eyes. When I close my eyes, I try to get back to that feeling before I knew too much, before man’s whole twisted hold took over us.

Q. If You Ever Get Famous on the current album is about the pitfalls of being successful. What are you feelings about fame and stardom?
Simone Felice: I wrote that song at a point in my life where I’d been exposed to a lot of fame and famous people when I was playing in the Felice Brothers. We were travelling around and touring with people who were more famous. I wrote it as a mantra to myself – basically, ‘don’t forget about where you come from’ and the people who love you and care about you. You see people get famous and they change. It was a very emotional thing for me to write because it was at a crossroads in my life with the music and my career. The song was a catalyst for change and doing what I’m doing now with The Duke and the King.

Q. How would you describe the new Duke and the King album, which is due to come out later this year?
Bobby ‘Bird’ Burke: It’s a wallop. A huge wallop! What’s really exciting about this record is that this band has a really special energy and magic. Luckily, the new record will be reflecting a lot of how our relationships have developed and how we’ve come together musically. Everyone’s voice is on the record and everybody is singing together. Stylistically, I would call it “the melting pot of music”. It’s an exciting thing. It’s pretty eclectic. It’s ‘Neil Young caught in the ‘hood of Detroit’!

Q. Does it cover similar themes to Nothing Gold Can Stay?
Simone Felice: You’ll have to judge that for yourself. Some of the themes are similar to the first record so we cross-over a bit. But we’re going to go in some different directions. I wrote a couple of love songs for the new record. You’ll see some new and different highways – the river branches but the river always comes to the sea. It’s been a great experience. I can’t wait for everybody to hear it.

Q. There’s a lot of warmth on stage between the band members – tell us about the relationships and dynamics within the band…
Bobby ‘Bird’ Burke: The relationship we have together comes from the fact that we absolutely love each other dearly. The band was a family that was waiting to come together. Simone and I have been friends for almost 15 years. As soon as we met we were instant buddies. When no one was around to see us, we used to sit around and write screenplays and act them out for days. And we’d write songs. This was during a period of our lives when people would just laugh at us. We were making absolutely no money – and we didn’t care. But our hearts and spirits were just nourished by allowing ourselves to go in that wonderful, creative place.

It was the same thing with Nowell – we had a relationship that was developing. Then Simi (Stone) came into the picture. I’ve know Simi for years from Woodstock which is home for us – and I was always very impressed by her. One day we were doing a show in Woodstock and she was doing a solo set opening up for us and we asked her to sit in and jam out with us ‘cos she’s such a great musician. Then Simi came into a rehearsal and we replaced around eight other musicians in one shot! She had to be in the band – she’s a magical goddess. We just embraced her with open hearts and were really happy that she was the sister we’d been looking for all our life.

Q. At one gig on this tour you likened yourselves to the “early Christians”. Do you consider yourself to be musical evangelists?
Simone Felice: No, we don’t really see ourselves as evangelists. But I think the beauty of all religion is that it starts in a pure way, whether it’s punk rock or any kind of religion. When we’re on stage it’s like everyone in the audience believes in something, whether it’s the songs we’re singing or that feeling we have in the room together. It’s that feeling that you can just ‘let go’ and take your armour off – and there’s room for new things to come out of you. That’s a lot of what the band is about – being honest with ourselves and with the music. We feel very lucky to travel around and meet people – and that people respond to our music like they have on this tour.

Q. At last night’s gig you trashed your acoustic guitar in a true Pete Townshend moment – what was going on there?
Simone Felice: It was the first time I’ve ever done that in my life! The guitar was playing up so we had a moment together – a little jamboree. I felt like it was the right thing to do!

A highlight of your live show is One More American Song. Is it intended as a political statement?
Simone Felice: It was about friend of mine who hung around my town. It wasn’t meant as a political statement although there’s an underlying core in the song that speaks about the decline of America as a great super-power – a frail concept. But I’ve seen our country fall apart at the seams so that’s what the song is about.

Q. You had a near death experience as a teenager? How has that affected your outlook on life?
Simone Felice: Greatly. I was 12-years-old so it was a long time ago but it’s always stayed with me. I did die in the hospital but I came back – so I always feel my time here is precious and I have to do something with it.

Q. A lot of your songs are about redemption. Do you think music has a healing power?
Simone Felice: Yes, I do think music is a big healer – and poetry too. It saved my life before and would never want to take a pharmaceutical drug or go to a psychiatrist. If you have a hard time, you listen to music and I think that’s better than any pharmaceutical drug.

Q. You’ve also a writer and poet so how do your music and writing co-exist?
Simone Felice: These days I put all my poetry into my songwriting. But I’m an author too and I’ve just finished my first official novel – Black Jesus – and there’s a company who are going to put my book out next year. That’s really exciting for me.

Simone will be coming back to London (hot news!) on May 4, 2010, to play an acoustic date – an exclusive solo performance at Camden Hawley Arms!

Another Review Declaring The Duke and The King as Best Live Band in the World

Stuff by Paul Brown
The Duke and The King
The Cluny, Newcastle, 26 April 2010
Best live band

Every so often you get blown away by a band, and tonight was one of those occasions. I might not even have been here tonight had Danny and the Champions of the World not been on the supporting bill. The always-entertaining Danny (operating in reduced circumstances with opening act Trevor Moss and Hannah-Lou joining him for a stripped-down set) was great, but The Duke and The King were even better – undoubtedly one of the best bands I’ve seen up here for years.
Originally a side project for Simone Felice of The Felice Brothers, The Duke and The King (named after a pair of travelling hustlers in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) has now become Felice’s priority, and seem destined for very great things. Felice (The Duke) and Bobbie Bird Burke (The King) recorded debut album Nothing Gold Can Stay in a one-room woodstove-heated cabin. It’s a good album – warm, catchy Americana – but it becomes really great in a live setting.
Adding Simi Stone and Nowell Haskins to become a four-piece takes the songs to another level. All four are outstanding vocalists, combining voices to produce outstanding harmonies, and the swapping of instruments and singing duties gives the set real variety.
Opener If You Ever Get Famous starts as folky Americana with Felice’s voice and guitar, adds Stone’s fiddle, Haskins’s drums and Burke’s bass, and builds into a glorious, harmony-fuelled gospel-soul number.
Then it’s straight into The Morning I Get To Hell, with audience participation encouraged and gained. The setlist is great – the cream of the album, plus a couple of Felice Brothers songs – Don’t Wake The Scarecrow and Radio Song – and a few nice cover versions.
One of the many highlights is a wonderful sing-a-long version of Neil Young’s Helpless, which has Danny and The Champions and the majority of the audience joining in. But the most surprising moment is when Haskins (aka Reverend Loveday) goes centre stage to perform a jaw-dropping acapella version of Sam Cooke’s A Change Is Gonna Come. This guy’s amazing voice gets a huge roar of approval from the Cluny crowd, so loud it must be heard all along the Tyne.
The fact that these guys seem to be enjoying themselves a great deal only enhances the evening. It felt like a privilege to be here tonight, seeing a band that in a more perfect world would be on every iPod in the land. That day may come, but until then we can feel incredibly lucky to have seen a band with so much talent it could barely be squeezed into this tiny venue.

Cassette supporting The Felice Brothers!

A long time favorite, who i found on myspace a few years ago, Cassette from Gainesville, Florida, are supporting the Felice Brothers on their current tour. Samantha Jones (not sure if this is her real name or she got it from "Some Kind of Wonderful"), is a longtime collaberator of The Felice Brothers Dave Turbeville, in Cassette and The Deep and Holy Sea.
Cassette will supporting for the next few shows.

The world is getting weirder by the moment. Now I'm really excited for the Baltimore show.

http://bakeryoutletrecords.com/cassette.htm

New Felice Brothers Song(Honda Civic)

much thanks to Deck http://www.youtube.com/user/BDeck75#p/u

The Felice Brothers on Tumblr.com

http://thefelicebrothers.tumblr.com/

check it out. They always make me think of the Marx Brothers.


Thanks to April at http://nowthissoundisbrave.blogspot.com/
for the heads up

I am Home from Hiking the Appalachian Trail

while reading Poetry in the mountains i saw this poem by Robert Frost and could see how it was a source of inspiration for Simone Felice for the Song "Union St"


Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Fuzz Deluxe: Pre Felice Brothers Footage 2002

Simone Felice and Brian Goss collaboration

Simone's "Long May You Run" from North Adams, MA

This is where i went to college. I am sure Simone has a great affection for the area since Mt Greylock was a great refuge and source of inspiration for 19th century
American writers like Hawthorne, Emerson, Thoreau and others.

Simone Felice Solo Dates

May 4th – The Hawley Arms , Camden London
May 6th – Bluesville, Mallorca
May 7th – Lata De Bombillas, Zaragoza
May 8th – Teatro Lara, Madrid
May 9th – El Loco, Valencia
May 11th – Sidecar, Barcelona
May 12th – Opera Et Gusto, Firenze
May 22nd – Live At Drew’s, Ringwood
May 29th – Mass Moca – Hunter Center, North Adams

Jun 5th – Mountain Jam VI Hunter, New York
Jun 9th – The Annadale Hotel, Sydney
Jun 10th – The Northcote Social Club, Melbourne
Jun 11th – The Northcote Social Club, Melbourne
Jun 18th – NXNE at The Great Hall Toronto, Ontario
Jun 21st – Club Passim Cambridge, Massachusetts

August

18th – Winchester, The Railway (01962 714520)
19th – Cardiff, Buffalo Bar (02920 310 312)
20th - Swansea, The Chattery (01792 473276)
22nd – Green Man Festival (www.greenman.net)
24th – Bristol, St Bonaventures (0870 4444 400)
25th – Nottingham, The Maze (www.cosmicamerican.com)
26th – Newcastle, The Cluny 2 (0191 2304474)
27th – Edinburgh Festival
31st – Sheffield, Hee Haw Sessions (07564 532390)

September

1st – Liverpool, Americana UK
2nd – London, The Luminaire

Battery in Your Leg Declares the Duke and the King The Best Live Band

Link

The Duke & The King Live @ NAC
Written By: Mark on April 28, 2010 No Comment
I look forward to some gigs with a certain anticipation that the evening is going to be special, magical and spell-bindingly brilliant. Last night was one! How could it be anything else? I even felt a certain weight of expectation on my shoulders having told everyone this was the one gig at Norwich Art Centre not to miss.

First on the Loose Music triple bill were Trevor Moss & Hannah Lou, the husband and wife duo’s self-titled album is an enchanting slice of ethereal folk. The songs seem to come to life even more in a live setting and although I am still coming to grips with the more traditional elements of folk I was pretty impressed.



Having seen Danny with full band a couple of months ago on the Fionn Regan tour I was already well and truly won over to the live capability of Mr. Wilson. Tonight was a stripped-back version of the Champs with Trevor and Hannah joining Danny as a trio.



Both on and off stage Danny is a charming, enigmatic kind of a guy. The packed Art Centre bought into that in a big way last night. With every song being greeted with rapturous applause, this stripped back approach seemed to give more life to the songs, lyrically.



The set – at thirty five minutes – was all too short and my only criticism was the omission of ‘Henry the Van’. Having said that, I was once again captivated by the songs from Streets of Our Time.



I swear The Duke & The King are the best live act in the world! For me, anyway. I get lost in a sea of love and respect. Last night a friend of mine commented that some of my posts seem to gush with love of this week’s best thing since sliced bread. I accept that I get carried away, but hey, I am passionate about what moves me. Anyone who didn’t feel the love in the room last night must have a heart of stone, I had tears running down my cheeks and the biggest grin ever both at the same time. You see that’s what the music of Simone, Simi, Bobby and the Reverend does to me! Hits me in the pit of my stomach and then some.



The sound and the live show seems to have been honed to an even higher plane of perfection since I saw them at Scala last year. That was an amazing night but this was the perfect setting for the perfect band – a converted Church with wonderful acoustics and a great crowd. What they do so well is entertain and interact just enough to make it personal and special. There is no front man to the Duke. Although Simone takes lead vocals on the majority of the set, everyone takes lead at some stage and it is a collective in the truest sense of the word. It is not just a band collective but an auditorium collective, all the way from the stage to the guys at the back of the crowd.

The encore featured a great take on ‘Brain Damage’ from Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. The band then exited front stage and through the crowd, shaking hands and exchanging hugs. They are a band of the people. I make no apologies for the superlatives used as this was an amazing night yet again in the company of some of the most talented individuals to ever grace the Art Centre stage. I loved you, Norwich loved you, come back soon!

CD Review for Dean Jones

Link

Dean Jones, frequent contributor/collaborater of The Felice Brothers, gets his CD reviewed.

This is the second solo venture for Dean Jones of fave local kids’ band Dog on Fleas. Calling it a solo album, however, is somewhat misleading, since it also features appearances from members of Earmight and the Felice Brothers, as well as Uncle Rock (another local children’s hero of song), Jones’s Dog on Fleas band mate John Hughes, and too many others to mention in this small space. Although kid-friendly (it’s in Jones’s bones), this is an adult outing—but one you and your two-year-old can both dance to with wild abandon while giggling at the rhymes. A most striking and wonderful surprise is that six different people sing lead, and, as luck (or skill) would have it, Jones has a knack for picking the right tone for the tune.

In all, 13 vocalists, 19 musicians, 23 instruments, and 18 songs comprise just as many influences of distinct styles of provincial rock ’n’ roll. Mr. Jones’s other knack? Every song is easy of flow and familiarity—song one: a gypsy carnival; song two: a New Orleans death march (but fun); song three: a speakeasy shuffle; song four: Dylan with a smile. From the must-hears of a pirate shanty or a hillbilly stomp to the “Goldfinger”-esque “Poison Ivy” to Uncle Rock in a spaghetti western, the record plays like a party for the ages, complete with excited preparty jitters to raucous dancing and drunken revelry, from bubbly convergences in the kitchen to a profound moment or two standing in line for the bathroom, from a surreal trip to the 7-Eleven for more beer to the final late-night-by-candle-light acoustic jam. www.Nappersdelight.com

Felice Brothers to play SappyFest

Link

SappyFest Announces Holy Fuck, Chad VanGaalen, the Sadies and More in Initial 2010 Line-Up
4/27/2010 By Jason Schreurs

A handful of bands have been revealed for what should be a stellar lineup for this year’s SappyFest, taking place July 3 to August 1 in Sackville, NB.

The annual festival, now in its fifth year, has announced Holy Fuck, Chad VanGaalen, the Sadies, Jim Guthrie and the Felice Brothers as the first five acts to be named to its lineup for 2010, with many more acts to be revealed in the coming weeks.

Started in 2006 by Julie Doiron, Jon Claytor and Paul Henderson of Sappy Records, the festival takes place in various live venues throughout the Sackville area. It is a co-production of Sappy, the OK.Quoi?! Contemporary Arts Festival, Struts Gallery and the Faucet Media Arts Centre.

Every year many Sackville residents volunteer to help with SappyFest. Festival organizers are also currently looking for a paid summer intern for this year’s fest.

A limited amount of early-bird passes for SappyFest are now available for only $50 via Ticketpro. Last year’s SappyFest featured Canadian rock stalwarts Destroyer, Ladyhawk, Wintersleep and Eric’s Trip, along with dozens of others.

Press From Memphis

LINK


The Felice Brothers and their long time friends and band mates Greg Farley and Christmas Clapton, come to us from the Catskill Mountains, where a homegrown sound has been working its way through the bloodlines for generations. Their rambling journey so far has brought them from busking in New York City subway stations, to tours across the world that have included enthusiastically received performances at major music festivals including Bonnaroo, All Points West, Outside Lands, and Langerado.


A defining memory to date might be their appearance at the 2008 Newport Folk Festival. A summer afternoon thunderstorm rolled in and began to douse the land. While it electrified the atmosphere, the rain had the adverse effect of cutting power to The Felice Brother’s stage. After many assurances that power would be restored, The Felice Brothers were informed it was a lost cause, and that they’d have to make due. Without hesitation the band jumped down off the stage and began playing acoustic while stomping around barefoot in the mud that had formed on account of the ongoing downpour. What might have led some to call it a wash and leave was turned into another epic show that drew upon the familiarity and casual ease of the backyard bbq sessions that took place at their dad’s porch on Sunday afternoons during their first days as a group. The audience that day, like others before and after, left utterly converted.


Titled with a phrase drawn from the pages of Mark Twain, Yonder Is The Clock is a nod to all of the American ghosts that lend their narrative and characters to the Felice Brothers’ 2009 release. Their studio was built from the remains of an abandoned chicken coop and it was there over the summer and fall of 2008 that they wrote and recorded this new collection of songs. Presented by Team Love Records, Yonder Is The Clock is teaming with tales of love, death, betrayal, baseball, train stations, phantoms, pandemics, jail cells, rolling rivers and frozen winter nights. This is music that hasn’t lost sight of the history of the land from which it came, and that quality alone makes The Felice Brothers the next great American band. Location

James Felice Interview w/ Paducah Sun

Link
Getting weird with The Felice Brothers
Written by Adam Shull
Thursday, April 22 2010 00:00
Roots rock group brings folksy act to Murray State

Contributed photo The Felice Brothers, a roots rock group out of New York, hits Murray for a show at Lovett Auditorium on the Murray State University campus Monday.



Some key facts clue us in on The Felice Brothers.

The roots rock group recorded its latest album in a restored chicken coup.

The bass player is named Christmas.

James Felice, one half of the band’s brother duo, plays a romping accordion. (Brother Ian Felice is a rail-thin guitarist and lead singer.)

And one of the band’s most high-profile moments came at the 2008 Newport Folk Festival when rain cut power to the stage.

Wet weather zapped the venue’s electricity just before the group went on, so the guys from New York’s Catskill Mountains stomped out time in the mud and electrified the crowd on their own.

“It definitely wasn’t a big deal for us with the power,” James Felice said. “I mean, the show must go on.”

When the group rolls into Murray next week, its show is likely to be just as raucous and flexible because that moment at Newport says a lot about this 4-year-old group. It showed the freewheeling but calculated approach to an ever-evolving folk sound and outlaw attitude.

James Felice, who has been known to sip Tennessee whiskey on stage as he swings his accordion like a dance partner, revealed another side of the band in an interview last week: its subversive humor.

“This year we’re playing (Newport) again,” he said. “We’re all going to play on laptops, all electric.”

When the humor, outcast nature and carnival band stylings all meld the band emanates a willfully bizarre but still resonate act. And the group definitely falls into the “is a completely different animal live” category such as other groups to hit Murray recently like The Avett Brothers.

“We have a sound that’s hard to describe,” James Felice said, “but the one thing about us is we’re always changing. We’re much less of a folk band than we were. Not really rocky, just more electric, more visceral sounding, I think.”

When the group first formed, and included a third brother, Simone Felice, on drums, it sounded like a blast from early 1960s Dylan — the folk bard singing about Hattie Carroll and Medgar Evers.

Ian Felice’s vocals sound like that of the grainy early Dylan.

The more recent sound of “Run Chicken Run,” from the group’s 2009 album “Yonder Is the Clock,” is like a rock and punk group took over and left the old timey touches.

All the changing and on-stage antics are serving the band well these days. The group is recording again and plans to open for the Dave Matthews Band for several dates this summer in a nationwide tour.

Which gives more incentive to keep up the unique artistic pace.

“I’d say we’re getting better,” James Felice said. “Hopefully we’re getting better. And weirder.”

The Duke and the King Hit Portsmouth

The Duke and the King hit Town
By Sarah Gill
Shine up your old brown shoes and put on a brand new shirt. The glam-soul-folk sound of The Duke and the King will be shaking the dust from the rafters at the Wedgewood Rooms tomorrow night.


The New York quartet are touring the UK to support their first album, No Gold Will Stay, which was released to international acclaim last year.

The band comprises Simone Felice (of the Felice Brothers), Bobby 'Bird' Burke, Simi Stone and Nowell Haskins. Named after the travelling Shakespeare hustlers in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, they bring the tradition of being on the road, life experience and the human condition alive in their music.

Nowell says: 'The reality of being a human being is that you have good, you have bad, you have happy, you have sad.'

Famed for their rousing live performances, Felice says: 'We like to
bring theatre into our music. We want it to be like a travelling theatre.'

Their debut album, which was nominated for an Uncut Music Award last year, was recorded in a cabin in the Catskill mountains of NY state.

If you missed them on Later With Jools Holland last year and haven't yet heard their warm country-soul sound, their songs are wistful tales of childhood, the passage of time, America, regrets and desires.

Their music has been favourably compared to the likes of Smokey Robinson, Paul Simon, Sly and the Family Stone, Marvin Gaye and James Taylor but their sound is distinct.

Felice wants to write about the past without recycling what other people have written.

'The poet's job is to tell the story of his own time,' he says.

Link