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The Felice Brothers

A folk rock band from Palenville, New York in the Catskills, who busked in New York subway stations, recorded in a chicken coop and made their best-known song, "Frankie's Gun!", in 2007.

Origin
Palenville, New York
Years active
2006-present
Genres
folk rock, country rock, Americana, roots rock
Labels
Loose, Team Love, Fat Possum, Yep Roc
Also known as
Felice Brothers

Palenville and the subway

The Felice Brothers, from Palenville, New York, in the Catskill Mountains, formed in 2006 around the brothers Ian, James and Simone Felice. While living in Brooklyn the band played in New York City's 42nd Street and Union Square subway stations; James Felice told Paste that he took up accordion because there was no piano on the street. Their self-released debut Through These Reins and Gone (2006) made the Radio Woodstock WDST top 25 of the year, and Tonight at the Arizona (Loose, 2007) was recorded with lines such as a lightning strike said to have caused imperfections in "Hey Hey Revolver". They played Levon Helm's Midnight Ramble and toured with Bright Eyes in 2007.

Adventures of The Felice Brothers Vol. 1 (2007), sold by the band at shows, was recorded on two-track tape in a chicken coop, a little tiny dirty house, and placed third on WDST's top 25 albums of 2007 behind Bruce Springsteen and Levon Helm; "Ruby Mae" is based on the brothers' grandfather's old sweetheart. They signed to Team Love on January 7, 2008, and the self-titled The Felice Brothers followed on March 4, 2008, produced by Jeremy Backofen and the band, 65:29 long. Metacritic scores it 76, Uncut's Rob Hughes gave it 4 out of 5 and The A.V. Club an A-minus, while Pitchfork gave it 5.5.

Albums since

At the Newport Folk Festival in August 2008 a storm cut the power and the band played unplugged for more than an hour, including "Frankie's Gun!"; James Felice recalls barely remembering it, saying the show's gotta go on. Yonder Is the Clock (April 7, 2009, Team Love) reached number 20 on the Billboard 200 and has Metacritic's 84. Simone Felice left in 2009 and formed The Duke and the King; Dave Turbeville drummed from 2009 to 2012 and David Estabrook has since. Celebration, Florida (May 2011, Fat Possum, recorded at Old Beacon High School in Beacon) reached number five by Wikipedia's account, and God Bless You, Amigo (2012) was an acoustic mini-album; Hurricane Irene destroyed their studio and gear in 2011.

Later records are Favorite Waitress (2014), Life in the Dark (2016), Undress (2019), From Dreams to Dust (2021), Asylum on the Hill (2023) and Valley of Abandoned Songs (2024). A tribute album, Felice County Fair: A Celebration of The Felice Brothers, with covers by Bright Eyes, Deer Tick, The Lumineers, Phoebe Bridgers and Old Crow Medicine Show, was released on October 16, 2026, and the documentary Lunatic Dreamers, directed by Tiller Russell, premiered at the Woodstock Film Festival on October 14. Setlist.fm logs 442 setlists. Their songs have been used in True Blood, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and Resident Alien.

Members

Records

Songs

Tyler Childers

Where to go next

Official

Reference

Discography and data

Live performance archives

Sources

  1. The Felice Brothers, Wikipedia
  2. Yonder Is the Clock, Wikipedia
  3. Catching up with the Felice Brothers, Paste (2012-08-10)
  4. Conversation: James Felice of the Felice Brothers, Feast of Music (2015-06-03)