Brandy Schultz can remember the first time she heard The Felice Brothers. She'd won tickets from a radio call-in contest to see Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., in 2008. Fortunately, she got there in time to see the opening act: an exciting, weird little band out of Palenville, New York, and, like many of us who fell under their poetic, ramshackle spell, she was quickly hooked. "My husband and I have been massive fans forever, and we were always wondering why they never got to be a bigger band," says Schultz. In the eyes of many, especially other songwriters, The Felice Brothers are the best in the business, yet, twenty years into their career, they've remained one of modern music's best-kept secrets, a beloved cult favorite rather than a well-known name. Brandy Schultz and her husband Wesley of The Lumineers decided enough was enough and spearheaded a mission to lift the band out of their not-quite-obscurity-but-should-be-better-known status.
That effort included a deal with Sony Music Nashville for the band's forthcoming album, a documentary, Lunatic Dreamers, by award-winning filmmaker Tiller Russell debuting at the Woodstock Film Festival on October 14th, and Felice County Fair (A Celebration of The Felice Brothers), a 26-track tribute album featuring covers from a long list of musicians sharing their love for the band due out on October 16th. So how did Brandy Schultz pull off this massive project? For starters, she had the band's blessing. The Felice Brothers have been notoriously uncompromising, declining offers to work with big names like Rick Rubin and refusing money to include their music in commercials, so their willingness to entrust Brandy Schultz with the project was significant and hard-won. With the band on board and the tribute artists already lining up, she was able to entice Sony. "David Baron was the key for Sony," says Schultz. "He has Sun Mountain Records in Boiceville, where the Lumineers have recorded, and he's a good friend. I think the names we'd gathered before Sony caught wind made them excited for this project too."
The songwriting of brothers Ian, James, and Simone (who left the band in 2009) has set a high bar in modern American music, and The Felice County Fair has been a moment for other songwriters to reflect on their admiration for the group. "My favorite thing to say about other artists is 'I wish I had written it,' and that's so many Felice Brothers songs," says Wesley Schultz in a clip posted by Tiller Russell's Love and Squalor Quarterly on social media. Conor Oberst, arguably one of the band's biggest supporters for decades, called Ian Felice "the only songwriter he will ever be jealous of." According to Brandy Schultz, that good-natured jealousy was a common theme. "We kept hearing that from everybody," she says.
The list of artists on Felice County Fair includes big names like Phoebe Bridgers, The Lumineers, Bright Eyes, Dawes, Nathaniel Ratliffe, Deer Tick, Hiss Golden Messenger, Swamp Dogg, and Mikaela Davis, eager to pay tribute to the beloved band. Brandon Flowers of The Killers was one of the first to sign on, saying he would be "honored" to be a part of the project. "He's a huge fan," says Schultz. "He picked what I would consider a deep cut for the album." Tracks have been rolling out on Spotify ahead of the October 16th release, including Old Crow Medicine Show's bluegrass breakdown of "Penn Station," Bebe Stockwell's stirring take on "TV Mama," and The Lumineers' hymn-like rendition of "The Kid." Benny G turns "Poor Blind Birds" into a gospel-tinged show-stopper, and Schultz noted Lou Hazel's psychedelic take on "Red Mustang" as particularly surprising and seemingly emerging out of nowhere. "We were all like, 'What is this?!" laughs Schultz.
So many musicians wanted to contribute that Schultz and crew had to turn away some big names. "Sony cut off tracks when we had cut 26," says Schultz, acknowledging they had to draw the line somewhere on the expansive three-record collection. Some artists may end up releasing the unused tracks themselves. "There are a handful of artists that said they'd do it and may still be rolling tracks out. Artists who said they'd do it, but we didn't follow up with, include Kevin Morby and Jenny Lewis. Jason Isbell said he'd do it, but Shovels and Rope ended up doing the track he was going to do." That the interest in participating exceeded capacity on a three-record set shows just how revered this band is by its peers.
Tracks have been rolling out on streaming services ahead of the October 16th release, including Old Crow Medicine Show's bluegrass breakdown of "Penn Station," Bebe Stockwell's stirring take on "TV Mama," and The Lumineers' hymn-like rendition of "The Kid." Benny G turns "Poor Blind Birds" into a gospel-tinged show-stopper. Schultz noted Lou Hazel's psychedelic take on "Red Mustang" emerged as if out of nowhere. "We were all like, 'What is this?!" laughs Schultz. What makes these tribute tracks so appealing is that none of the artists are trying to replicate the Felice Brothers' sound; that would have been a foolhardy, disastrous decision to begin with, but they all dug even deeper to create something different and their own (you'd think Dan Reeder wrote "Song To Die To" himself). But no one is trying to outdo the original song either (which would have been equally absurd), but rather to bring out elements of the lyrics and music they respond to. A ghostly, sacred space seems to hang in the air on every note of the album, as if something remains untouched. The artists on Felice County Fair are not calling attention to themselves; they are collectively pointing back across The Valley of Abandoned Songs, in the faint light of dawn, to a space between waking and sleep, to The Kingdom of Dreams, to the source of their inspiration.
The Felice County Fair (A Celebration of The Felice Brothers) is out on October 16th.
Original album art by Ian Felice
