(HUDSON, N.Y.) – The Hudson Valley-bred roots-rock band The Felice Brothers will bring their folk- and country-tinged sounds to the Arts Center Theatre at Columbia-Greene Community College on Saturday, April 11, at 7pm. The group is touring behind their latest album, Undress, which was recorded in nearby Germantown and nominated for Best International Album of the Year by the Americana Music Association UK last November.
In addition to the titular core of the group — Ian (vocals, guitar, piano) and James Felice (vocals, accordion, organ, piano), who hail from Palenville — the band, often compared to the Woodstock region’s most famous roots-rockers, The Band — includes Jesske Hume (bass) and Will Lawrence (drums).
In their 13-year run, The Felice Brothers have performed at renowned festivals including Newport Folk, Bonnaroo, and Outside Lands Music and Art Festival. The band has played with the likes of the Dave Matthews Band and The Old Crow Medicine Show, and in 2013, their cover of The Drifters’ “This Magic Moment” was featured in a television commercial for Dell.
James and Ian Felice (photo Seth Rogovoy)
Ian and James Felice — self-taught musicians inspired as much by Hart Crane and Walt Whitman as by Woody Guthrie and Chuck Berry — grew up in the Hudson Valley of upstate New York. In 2006, they began by playing subway platforms and sidewalks in New York City, and have gone on to release nine albums of original songs and to tour extensively throughout the world. Following the release of Life in the Dark, the Felice Brothers served as the backing band for Conor Oberst’s 2017 release Salutations and the subsequent tour.
Reviewing a recent concert of theirs at Club Helsinki Hudson, local music critic Seth Rogovoy praised the group as “full of energy, dynamism, group interplay and the built-in drama they invest in their own folk-rock compositions,” going on to write, “While I’m never sure just what it is they’re singing about, it always sounds to me like someone is in trouble, something is at stake, there’s a crisis brewing or breaking out. That’s a tribute to their songwriting skills, arrangements, and their urgent, earnest delivery.”
The show is the second of the new CoGreene Presents concert series, which endeavors to highlight accomplished musicians with ties to the local area. Last spring the series played host to Woodstock-based singer-songwriter Amy Helm – thirty-six years after her father, Levon Helm, played the same stage.
The Felice Brothers show begins at 7pm and general admission tickets are $25, or $20 for students. Purchase tickets online here.