So I was sitting in the front pew in the tiny Frank Furness chapel of the First Unitarian Church on Friday night, which holds a mere fifty souls. The Felice Brothers had just finished banging and shouting through the Lieber and Stoller gospel number, "Saved." "I used to lie, cheat, step on people's feet/But now I'm steppin' on to glory/Salvation is my beat."
"Okay," drummer Simone Felice said, with the Devil in his eye. "Now we're going to blaspheme."
My pal Trip had been recommending the Felices for a while - I think he went to see them six times at SXSW this year. But it was Justin Townes Earle that got me out to the Church on Friday. I saw part of Steve's son set in Austin, and wanted to have another look to make sure the slick haired scion was as much of a fully formed real deal as he seemed on my first impression.
That had to wait, though. First up, was McCarthy Trenching, an Omaha, Nebraska acoustic threesome led by plain spoken singer Dan McCarthy. Good songwriter, bluegrass flavored tunes, quietly powerful, understated stuff. Like the Felices, he's signed to Conor Oberst's Team Love label.
The Felices followed. And while I can't say the hour-long set from the fivesome from - brothers Ian, James and Simone (all of whom can sing), plus two other dudes - amounted to literal blasphemy, they certainly raised hell. After a foot stompin' "Whiskey For My Whiskey," somebody shouted out "Now that's shit kicking music!" That's about right, but there's more to the Felices, who are coming to the Philadelphia Folk Festival in August, than that.
There's a ragged-but-right recklessness about the Felices, but also a haunted country soul, that comes out in such abyss-confronting songs as "Hey Hey Revolver" and "Frankie's Gun" and "It's A Wonderful Life." They hail from Palenville, N.Y., just down the road from Woodstock, and some of the spirit of the Band's Music From Big Pink courses through their music. They're a great live band. MySpace page here.
And here's a YouTube video of "Ballad of Lou the Welterweight," from the show at the Church chapel, and below it the video for "Trouble Been Hard."
Oh, and as for Earle: He was way more than an afterthought. Decked out in Western wear along with his multi-instrumentalist sideman Cory Younts ("Ladies, if you take him home tonight, please make sure that he gets to New York city by tomorrow"), Earle's got his father's gift of gab, alright.
But the 25 year old trades in old timey strands of folk and country, tending to pull from songwriters that influenced his father rather than taking a page directly from his dear old Dad's songbook. (Though he's got a ballad called "Who Am I To Say" that I bet Steve wished he wrote himself.) He impressed with a song he wrote after reading Joe Klein's Woody Guthrie: A Life, delivering with a witty take on Mance Liscomb's "So Different Blues" and showed off the songwriting chops on The Good Life that suggest he's got a long career ahead of him.
The wood carved FU Church chapel, by the way, is about as cool of an intimate space to see a band in the city as I can think of. Here's hoping Sean Agnew books more shows there.
Below that are some fuzzy photos I took of the Felice Bros., and Earle, with my phone. Next time I'll bring a real camera.
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