Customer Reviews

The Felice Brothers

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

These guys opened for the Drive-By Truckers at a recent concert. I had never heard of them but stood there, dumbfounded, as they made their way through an amazing set. I have been to many, many shows (I'm 50), and that set was by far one of the best I have ever seen. I bought their CDs immediately.

It's hard to describe their music: "roots" and "folk" seems so overused and meaningless, as does "Americana." And those terms really don't capture their sound anyway.

I'll characterize it as post-punk organic mountain/folk music and hope that doesn't scare you off. And ignore the "it sounds like Bob Dylan to me" comments. That's really lazy and superficial. They do to "folk" music what Hank did to country music.

Beautiful music with mostly painful and bleak lyrics. You need to listen.

On initial listening my thoughts were that these guys sounded like a mixture of The Band and Wilco but that is unfair. Certainly there are references to these great bands and Dylan, Neil Young and Randy Newman but only references not copying. Everyone is influenced by something and you might as well use the best.

This is original and fresh music in the Americana vain(for want of a better description). Thankfully the producer has allowed the band's playing to remain fresh and he has not overproduced this collection of great music that sounds live with strong accordian and keyboard playing that floats about the room as I listen to this wonderfull collage of sound.

I hope these guys can keep up this standard, if they can they will be a great musical force.

This band is great. And this CD is great. Though it is true there are many great band/albums, it is also true about the Felice Brothers. As good as the CD is, the live shows are even better. This is perhaps becuase the band takes their simple and heartfelt approach to their music and turn the dials up to eleven in their live shows. I watched the band live once, and plan to see them again next month. They opened for a favorite band of mine, and I indeed thought their performance was better. I had never heard of them at the time, and was surely awestruck at their energy and variety. The lyrics are deep and thoughtful, and one can't help but get drawn into the songs. What's especially nice is the fact that three of the brothers sing on the CD which gives the album a varied taste and style---from folksy tunes, to country, blues, and even some new orleans-styled instrumentation.

As musicians they are probably at best average which is true of their their vocal technique...but that merely enhances the appeal of the tunes' subject matter/mood. The paradox is that while listening to this album or "Tonight at the Arizona" you get a genuine sense of their authenticity, it doesn't quite fill any particular template of musicianship. Here you have brothers working together in a unique sibling partnership, taking their personal experiences in rural America, and shaping it into their music. Though many artists in a folk/Americana label sometimes seem like they are artificial or assuming their qualities for the sake of the genre or selling records, in the Felice Brothers' case, I get the opposite sensation--this is for real. They give you THEIR music---popular opinion be damned!

None of their tunes get old. And each song is different. Though it appears through their lyrics that they sometimes, to a small extent, repeat content/themes (such as a predisposition with guns), it works out just fine. I recommend this album highly becuase it doesn't get old...none of their stuff does. Listening to this music you get a sense of each band members' personality, and this is hard to come by in today's world of over-produced music in EVERY genre. This band manages to be laid-back and not over-complicated yet they jump out at you and sometimes startle you with their songcraft.

I look forward again to seeing this band live, as anyone should do given the chance. This music is thoroughly a delight---a rare find these days.

Stumbled across these guys through the Drive-By Truckers (what a contrast). Awesome. I'm old enough to remember Dylan & The Band's Basement Tapes release and some of these could have been lost cuts. Other cuts are totally different. While some will say the sound and phrasing is just a Dylan rip-off, I say that it's been so long since anyone's had this kind of sound, that it's fresh all over again. Varied instruments, changing themes, great lyrics, and an ultra low-fi production approach that fits perfectly. Almost hope these guys don't make enough money to affort too much studio time.

It's incredibly refreshing to hear something so uniquely American, so rustic and pure, as if they didn't realize radios only play the same old crap for the most part. I strongly recommend buying this album: the lyrics are terrifically written stories, backed by a sound that can change from a folk ballad to a rollicking sing along in a heartbeat. These guys deserve a listen, you won't be disappointed.

This is an amazing piece of American art, some may consider it patriotic. Every track on this album is a little gem that you can keep as your own. I love the fact that I'm 26 and starting to get into this band and others like the Wood Brothers while a lot of my friends hate this stuff. It makes it personal. By the way, I got into this music from Bright Eyes and I was wondering if anyone out there had any recommendations. Still trying to broaden my folk, Americana listening. I can't get enough of this stuff.
Thanks!

This album is a haphazardly appealing collection of acoustic songs, backed mostly by light percussion, accordion and bass. Lyrically, tales evoke the feel of The Band, with production stripped down to bare bones. Forget polish - there is little to be found here. But the songs are infectious, and blossom with each listen. Led by Ian & James Felice, vocals are quirky and smack in the middle of John Prine and old Bob Dylan. This CD grows, and grows and grows. GENRES: Mellow Rock, Folk Rock.

BUY IF YOU LIKE: John Prine, (old) Bob Dylan, The Band.
MUST HEAR TRACKS: "Little Ann," "Frankie's Gun," "St. Stephen's End," "Murder By Mistletoe."

I actually bought this CD at one of their club performances. I enjoy the music much more from this CD, as it is not distorted by hyperamplification and excess volume. They were playing to an audience that liked the volume and didn't care about the words. I must say I did enjoy the energy these guys put into their live performance.
I can actually understand most of the words on the CD - important, as there are some real messages about history, our world and the human condition in Ian's lyrics.
I'd love to see them in an outdoor performance some day after they return from Europe. Maybe they will be able to afford a better sound system by then.
Back to this CD - This music is some of the best of the new Americana stuff that's flowing out these days - almost up to Carrie Rodriguez - which is about the highest compliment I can give a group.

I don't know anything about the Felice Brothers. I haven't gone to their website, I'm not sure who plays what, who's singing, or even if they're really brothers, or doing a Ramones thing with their names. And guess what? It doesn't matter a bit, because this CD is all about the music.

What at first glance ("Little Ann") seems like whispery folk rock of the M. Ward school, the Brothers soon turn that notion on it's head with the Heartland/New Orleans hybrid tune "Greatest Show On Earth" (Sample lyric: 'Put your pistol in your purse/Cause we're going to Gettysburg').

The band whips up a musical stew that takes the best elements of heartland folk and combines them with a southern gothic feel that is at once familiar, yet somehow fresh, and is wholly American. The vocals tend to the Dylanesque, but are not imitative in any way, largely due to the song structure and the pure passion in the singer's voice.

There's so much to love about this album: the instrumentation is widely varied to fit the song--accordions, handclaps, and horns augment the traditional 'folk rock' elements of acoustic guitar, bass, keyboard, drums. The vocals (more than one Brother sings lead) are uniformly good, fitting the tune at hand...gentle and elegaic at times, raucous and demanding at others. And the songs themselves are some of the best I've heard in recent memory. The album even boasts my favorite line of the past year--"I hurt him so damn bad I had to hide in Jersey." That line alone paints a picture of a dark America that we can all recognize and be glad we don't actually live in.

This album is close to brilliant.

I knew from the first few notes of "Frankie's Gun" that I was going to like this band. The music is incredible, like nothing else out there now. So if you are viewing this review, I highly recommend that you buy this album! You will not regret it. Other favorite songs include: "Greatest Show on Earth", "Don't Wake the Scarecrow", "Love Me Tenderly" "Murder by Mistletoe" and of course "Whiskey in my Whiskey." (It was hard not to include more songs on the list of favorites, cause it is a great album.)
So buy this album, share the music with your friends. This is a great band.