While the Felice family wasn’t necessarily musical, music was always there to quell the boredom of small town life.
James Felice describes Palenville, the town in upstate New York where Felice and his six siblings grew up, as “a traditional American redneck town”. “Palenville is a really small town, with a couple of thousand people,” Felice says. “It’s got like one main street and one gas station – there’s not a lot happening.” While the Felice family wasn’t necessarily musical, music was always there to quell the boredom of small town life.
“My dad was a carpenter, and he used to listen to the radio while he was working – it’d be classic rock, or college rock. The radio was always on,” Felice says. Not surprisingly, Felice and two of his brothers – Ian and Simon – eventually headed south for the excitement of New York City. Starting out busking in the bustling subways of New York, The Felice Brothers eventually evolved to become one of America’s favourite alternative country acts. “Busking teaches you that you have to perform – you can’t just stand there and play,” Felice replies, when I ask him what busking taught him and his brothers about the craft of performance. “When we arrived, we were just dirt bag kids. We had to be exuberant – you have to engage the audience all the time,” he says.
New York City’s eclectic and intense culture made the fledgling street performers’ task even harder. “New York is particularly tough – probably more than any other city on the planet,” Felice says. “There are so many amazing performers on the street. You can have people from America, Europe, China or Armenia, all trying to get your attention,” he says.
With elder brother Ian on guitar, and younger brother Simon on drums, James Felice decided to migrate from piano to piano accordion. “I started playing piano accordion more out of necessity,” he says. “Ian was playing guitar, Simon was on drums and I played piano, but I couldn’t drag a piano around with me… But an accordion I could carry around – I didn’t have any lessons, and I just learned with the band. I suppose I play it just in my own way.” Inadvertently, the accordion began to have its own subtle influence on the Felice Brothers’ sound. “I think the accordion did have an influence on the music we were playing, for better or for worse,” he says.
The Felice Brothers’ sound – often compared to The Band, the predominantly Canadian band who famously resided in the same Catskills Mountain region in which the Felice brothers grew up – is, James concedes, “distinctly American”. “It’s definitely distinctly American, because we’re all distinctly American,” Felice says. “We’re all educated, but I didn’t grow up travelling around the world learn French or go to the ballet,” Felice says. “We’re the product of our environment, and music is the product of us.”
James Felice says the band’s relentless touring schedule for much of the last few years has been occasionally difficult to manage, but has ultimately been just as personally rewarding as busking in a subway. “When you’ve got six to eight people travelling in one van, it can get tense,” Felice laughs. “But we all share a similar sense of humour, and we can all make each other laugh. “That’s why we’re still alive, and that no-one’s died.”
Simon Felice announced his departure from The Felice Brothers a couple of years ago (Simon went on to form The Duke And The King with Robert Burke), and James Felice says there’s no intention to recruit another sibling to take his place. “Each of my siblings can play, but they’re not all musicians,” Felice says. “But my fourth brother is the really smart one – he’s going to medical school,” he says proudly.
Simon’s own attempts to get to Australia have been hampered by a couple of major health issues, including a debilitating case of food poisoning in 2009 and a heart by-pass surgery in 2010. “I hope we make it!” Felice laughs. “You guys just stay there, and we’ll be there soon.”
THE FELICE BROTHERS have finally made it to Australia and will be playing the Prince Of Wales Hotel on Thursday April 21 and at Boogie Fest at Bruzzy’s Farm in Tullarook on Friday April 22. See thefelicebrothers.com for more information.
