Gig review: The Felice Brothers, Glasgow
The Felice Brothers
ABC, GLASGOW
Star rating: * * *
With roots in the languorous country rock of Neil Young and The Band, a kinship with the likes of Old Crow Medicine Show and a spare toe in the land of indie rock, co-frontman Ian Felice displayed a Dylanesque relationship with pitch –teetering like a functioning alcoholic on the brink of tunefulness at times, but pulling through with insouciant personality in his tone and some natural storytelling phrasing.
Brother James was a safer pair of lungs when it came to the high lonesome harmonies. Theirs is a pick and mix relationship with country music – with James at the keyboard, the mood turned reflective and often bittersweet.
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Hide AdBut they always scored with the audience, pints thrust in the air in appreciation when they whooped it up on the devil-may-care bluegrass numbers, making that fundamental transatlantic connection between drinking and dancing on a cover of country standard Rocky Top, their own grizzly Penn Station and especially Whiskey In My Whiskey – a tale of murder on the dancefloor with some Cajun flourishes on accordion and a cheeky wee burst of Scotland The Brave dropped in on the fiddle.
Seen on 28.08.14