This past weekend longtime HT faves the Felice Brothers completed a three-night New Year’s run that included two intimate sold-out shows at Maxwell’s in Hoboken and a New Year’s Eve gig at New York City’s Mercury Lounge. The upstate New York-based band – whose choice in covers typically leans towards the likes of Townes Van Zandt, Woody Guthrie, Bruce Springsteen or traditional folk tunes – played a handful of unexpected new ones over the course of the run.
To close Saturday night’s show, Ian embraced his inner crooner tackling the Elvis classic Can’t Help Falling In Love, putting his unmistakable, ragged, whiskey-soaked vocal stamp on the tender ballad…
On Sunday night, the ramshackle folk-rock act upped the ante during their encore, opening up with the one-two punch of Golden Slumbers -> Carry That Weight from The Beatles’ Abbey Road medley, before turning the shoebox-sized club into a full-on mosh pit with a cover of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit, a tune that Kurt Cobain probably never envisioned would be covered by a band with a fiddle player in it. Let’s check them out…
Golden Slumbers > Carry That Weight
Next up for the Felice Brothers are a pair of high profile shows opening for Mumford & Sons on February 5th and 6th, which will be followed by a string of dates with singer-songwriter Josh Ritter.
