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ACL 2009 preview: The Felice Brothers
Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN
The combustible acoustic quartet the Felice Brothers, whose unplanned unplugged set at the Newport Folk Festival last year launched roots rock legend, channeled the fire performing in New York City subways. South By Southwest veterans, the Felice Brothers debut Saturday, Oct. 3, at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. “South By’s cool, but it’s not that cool,” says singer-accordionist James Felice. “At ACL, you don’t have to deal with as many industry people and (jerks) like that. There’s less fishing around for what people can exploit. Just enjoy the music for what it is.”
(The Felice Brothers perform at 1:15 p.m. Oct. 3 on the Dell stage).
American-Statesman: Your SXSW showcase (at Habana Bar) this year was intense.
James Felice: Yeah, it was chaotic, right? All of those South By shows are a little crazy.
It didn’t help that the venue had only one public toilet per sex.
That’s awesome! Yeah, I guess that didn’t help. It was a great set, though.
‘Penn Station’ (from 2009’s ‘Yonder is the Clock’) really fired everyone up.
My brother Ian wrote that song a little while ago. You know, we played a bunch in the city subway back in the day. It’s about the great architect Louis Kahn, who was out of New York City. He actually died in a bathroom in Penn Station. It was a heart attack or aneurysm, I think. That’s a good, driving song to get people riled up.
As a songwriter, do you consciously think about involving the audience in your music?
Not necessarily. That just sort of happens organically. You play a song a few times and realize that people might sing along with a certain part or you’ll just feel it. If it works, you do it again and again, until you get tired of it. Then you don’t do it any more.
How much does your past as buskers play into that and your aggressive nature onstage?
Yeah, that sort of aggressive way of getting attention at all costs is residual from our time busking. We try to tone it down sometimes. People are now paying to see us play, so we don’t need to force them to listen. It’s part of the show, but not the biggest part anymore.
Clearly, you place high value on storytelling. How important is it to sings songs with substance?
It’s essential. I think a song has to be interesting. It has to have staying power, and staying power is often the lyrics. Lyrics might not be the first thing you focus on and they don’t have to be profound, but they do have to be interesting. Stories give songs character and something to relate to on both emotional and intellectual levels.
Townes (Van Zandt) did that pretty well. You’ve covered his ‘Two Hands.’
Oh, we grew up listening to Townes. He’s one of our favorites of all time because his songwriting is so brutally honest and sad as hell. It’s wonderful. We’ve always looked up to him. He was a horrible alcoholic, and that was probably the biggest problem he had. He was a dark guy with a very dark outlook on life. I mean, the first song he ever wrote was “Waiting Around to Die.” But like Van Gogh, he was brilliant.
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