With 2007 came the release of the style-crystalizing sophomore set Tonight at the Arizona, on the UK label Loose, and the tour-only compilation The Adventures of the Felice Brothers Vol. 1. Despite their initial ambivalence about having any ties to local legacies, the old guard anointed the band with a coveted appearance at one of Levon Helm's Midnight Rambles. Soon after, a fall tour with Bright Eyes (aka Conor Oberst) snagged the attention of that act's label, New Paltz indie Team Love, which released 2008's The Felice Brothers. Home to the boozy breakthrough hit "Frankie's Gun!," the disc brought the Felices' Faulknerian folk rock to a larger audience, winning them a run of prime festival slots that culminated with a riotous performance at the Newport Folk Festival. Their next album, 2009's raw, autumnal Yonder is the Clock, was heralded as a high-water mark by reviewers and even made the Billboard 200. It seemed the boys from Palenville were barreling down the tracks to their arrival at full speed. And then some unexpected news from within threatened to knock everything off the rails. Simone quit.
"We already had this whole tour booked, so that was a pretty difficult moment," James recalls about the announcement from the eldest brother, who left to work with his side project the Duke & The King and pursue a solo career. "But you can't ever stop. You just make do with what you have." And so the group dusted themselves off and hit the road for the presciently named Big Surprise Tour with Old Crow Medicine Show and Justin Townes Earle, adding new members Greg Farley on fiddle and vocals and Dave Turbeville on drums (since replaced by Will Lawrence). After some stadium shows opening for the Dave Matthews Band, they reunited with Oberst for some West Coast gigs and flew to England, where they were rabidly received.
In 2011, the Brothers hopped to the venerated Fat Possum imprint for Celebration, Florida, an effort that had them bucking their Band/Basement Tapes branding by experimenting with trip hop on the singles "Ponzi" and "Fire at the Pageant" and once again made the Billboard charts. An EP, Poughkeepsie Princess, and God Bless You, Amigo, a digital-only collection of home recordings, came next, before the band switched to Dualtone Records and returned to familiar folksy terrain with 2014's Favorite Waitress. After supporting the latter with yet another major tour, they held off on making another album until Life in the Dark, which came out in June on Yep Roc Records.
Cut "completely live," according to James, in their farm-side rehearsal room, Life in the Dark's loose vibe hints at the Neil Young obsession the band was feeling during the recording and illustrates Ian's aim of "writing songs that bring people together, like Woody, Dylan, and Leonard Cohen." It wasn't intended as such, he maintains, but the record plays like a series of impressionistic observations of our precarious planet: The deceptively cheerful "Aerosol Ball" references environmental destruction and mindless consumer/celebrity culture, while "Sell the House" laments a family who've fallen on hard times and the rousing, fiddle-and-organ-drenched standout "Plunder" takes shots at corporate lawlessness and "machines that make more machines." "[The album] is just a collection of the songs I'd written, but it deals with a lot of anxieties," says Ian in his nasal, instantly recognizable rasp. "I guess it's just about trying to process the horrors that are happening in the world."
Ten years down the trail from the backyard barbecues that begat the band, one wonders: Besides their being better known and having more to show for their efforts, what else is different now for the Felice Brothers?
"Before, we lived only for the music and now it's more of a professional thing," says Ian, now 33 and living on a farm in Columbia County with his lady. "My favorite part of the process is the writing. I'd be fine with not going on the road."
James, 36, has a different take. "Touring suits my temperament," says the keyboardist, a Kingston resident. "It's more fun now, we know our strengths and what kind of music we want to do. I've never had a boss, never had to have a job. We basically grew up on the road. And now we've become responsible adults."
Imagine that, Mom and Dad.