For the past 5 years Simone Felice has labored beneath the shadow of his siblings in The Felice Brothers, the great, raw-boned folk-rock band from the Catskill Mountains.
The singer-songwriter and author was originally a member, but departed in 2009 to pursue a separate career, both as a member of The Duke & The King and as a solo artist. Simone Felice has just released his excellent sophomore solo LP, Strangers, and it looks as if he’s slated to move into the limelight at last.
Felice is a true romantic and a sensitive soul, and boasts a sweeter voice and a smoother, prettier sound than his rougher-edged siblings. His are lovely and beguiling songs in the classic singer-songwriter mode—less suited for the honky-tonk than twilight in a darkening room with that special somebody, a warm spring rain beating against the window panes.
Strangers—which was recorded in the Catskills with guests The Felice Brothers, Leah Siegel, and Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites of The Lumineers—boasts delicate and haunting melodies, poetic lyrics, and lots of big, ecstatic song endings—check out “Molly-O” and “Running Through My Head”—but Felice’s heartfelt quaver is always front and center.
To win a copy of Strangers—which officially lands on store shelves today (3/25)—leave a comment below naming your favorite singer-songwriter. I would have to go with Gordon Lightfoot who gave us “Carefree Highway” and that great Irwin Allen disaster flick of a song, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”
A winner with a North American mailing address will be chosen a week from today, Tuesday, April 1. So go for it! Strangers even includes a song called “Gettysburg,” where I spent my formative years smoking pot with pig farmers!
