GHRR review

My wife & I [Ruby Mae] are fortunate to live in New York's Hudson River Valley/Catskills region, the land where the Felice Brothers hail from. When we heard that they were going to be doing a set each day at Clearwater's 2008 GREAT Hudson River Revival, we were thrilled that we'd get to see two shows in one weekend, at our favorite festival. The Felice Brothers play Revival – how fitting, as their music takes us from sin to salvation, and their concerts feel like revivals.

The Felice Brothers closed out the festival on Saturday, but Sunday was rained out. Seated in the front row, I took some photos, and, as your heyheyrevolver.com correspondent, mercy, am writing this to accompany the photos.

Our impression is that the band made an effort to, as Simone says on the Kennedy Center video "keep the lewd talk down" for this gig. If you haven't seen the archived video from the June 10 Kennedy Center Millennium Stage show in Washington, DC, be sure to check it out at

http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/millennium/artist_detail.cfm?artist_id=FLCBRTHRS

The set opened with Simone enthusing that "It's a great, great honor for us to be here, and to help you guys, and the great American hero Pete Seeger, to raise money to help to clean this beautiful waterway up." At 89 years of age, folk legend Pete Seeger, who founded the festival 30 years ago, still performs at the festival, held in a beautiful park, on the banks of the Hudson. Clearwater's GREAT Hudson River Revival is “the festival that saved a river.”

The band seemed well-rested and energetic, after having finished touring and being off the road for a few weeks.

They opened with “Saved,” with Dean Jones on trumpet, and, unfortunately, I-don't-remember-who on saxophone. The language during “I used to cuss” was kept clean. Allowing for some poetic license, we could almost hear the Hudson River itself singing along that “I'm saved.”

Last time we'd seen the band was April 26, 2008 at the Bearsville Theater homecoming show at the end of the tour-before-last, in Woodstock, where plenty of drink was consumed on stage during a long, late-night performance. The Clearwater show was in broad daylight, outdoors, in a family-oriented crowd, with no on-stage drinking observed.

The second song was “Ruby Mae,” which seemed familiar to many in the crowd. After this song, an interesting scene followed.

All performances on the multiple stages at the Clearwater festival are interpreted by ASL interpreters. After the first two songs, Simone spoke to the interpreter, saying that he was inspired by "you at the side of the stage, man. We never saw that before with our lyri.., with our songs. It's so super-cool." He then asked the ASL interpreter "Can you say 'I'm a very beautiful woman'?" and she signed it as requested (see accompanying photo).

Simone was inspired by the nature of the environmental and music festival to consider some alternatives to automobiles, such as making a kites to pull us around, something he called a “man-kite.”

Ian introduced the next song as “singing a slow number now about armed robbery in Hudson, New York.” It was “Revolver,” of course, and my wife noticed Ian pause and seem to smile nervously, before getting to the line and sort of mumbling, "You really fucked up."

They called their “Merry Men” up to play some horns on their cover of Blind Willie McTell's “Send Me an Angel,” getting the song off to a wonderfully bumpy start. Simone jumped away from the drums during the horn/accordion/washboard solo just long enough to get on his knee to propose to Ian, acting out Ian's lyrics “I walked down to the fairground, I fell down on my knees, the women come cried, 'Mr. Mac won't you marry me'” (see accompanying photo). Does anyone know what they're singing when it sounds like “If you don't have an angel, send me a cheese and brown”? [I know, they are singing "cheese and brown."]

I need to interject a side note about the respect that The Felice Brothers showed at the start of the set, for “the great American hero, Pete Seeger,” and how they've shown the same respect toward Pete's old partner, Woody Guthrie. Last summer, July 14, 2007, we saw went to see the Felice Brothers do a free show at a local Muddy Cup coffeehouse in New Paltz, New York. It turned into a Woody Guthrie tribute show, just because we passed the band unloading equipment (from their old short bus) in the alley on our way in, and I off-handedly mentioned to James in passing that it was Woody Guthrie's birthday today (a fact that I'd just happened to hear on the radio earlier that day). They wound up dedicating the entire show to Woody's memory, even encoring with an unrehearsed, spontaneous version of “This Land is Your Land.”

Back to Clearwater; “Send Me an Angel” was followed by White Limousine (or, as they said “It's called 'Cincinnati Queen'” and “It involves explicit sex.”), with Ian doing the intro, instead of Simone, who usually introduces this song. I surmised that the Felice Brothers' family was in attendance, as they apologized after the song, “She seduced us, we couldn't help it. Sorry Mom; where's Mom? Sorry, Nanny.” (Although my wife thinks that they may have just been kidding.)

Next, Simone left the drums behind to sing “Mercy.” This song had a very sweet, gentle ending to it, after the final lyric, “where devils fall in love,” as opposed to the thrashed-out, violently intense ending that was added at the end of the song as it was rendered at the Woodstock show. A member of the audience called out “beautiful guys, beautiful.” at its conclusion, and indeed it was. Mercy, mercy, me.

A friend of ours, who'd never seen the Felice Brothers before, joined us about this time. He commented that “None of them look very healthy, do they?”

After “Mercy,” Ian recollected that "we grew up fishing and swimming in this river...or it might have been the Mississippi, we can't remember, either way it's been an inspiration to us... We're grateful to all you people who came out to support this cause, thank you very much." That made us feel good about being members of Clearwater.

Next, some more indecision, as the band discussed what to do next. “What are we doin', boys?” “I don't know.” Then, Ian asked the crowd “What you guys want to hear? A barn dance number, or do you want to hear a sentimental song? What's goin' on?” The crowd roared “barn dance.” Simone exhorted the audience, “Well you hippies better get off your eco-friendly chairs and come dance, boy.” They then played a rollicking “Where'd You Get Your Liquor?” tossing off an improvised lyric, “Where'd you get your liquor? From Dean Jones.”

Dean Jones plays horns on the self-titled American debut CD/LP. This was only his second time sitting in with the band in a live performance (see photo). The first time was at the Bridgewater Bar & Grill on November 23, 2007, in Kingston, New York, in the Hudson Valley. The song ended suddenly, as usual, but not quite on a dime this time.

The audience was, as usual, very enthusiastic. There's always an impressive age range among the audience at local shows. We always see many teenage fans, evenly matched by the many gray-haired, older, fans. One couple at Clearwater was drinking gin & tonics, saying that they'd come from New Jersey just to see the Felice Brothers, after seeing them perform in somebody's living room, where they wound up playing after a gig in Jersey was canceled. People were singing out lyrics, and the one small sliver of shade along the trees at the side of the field became the dancing zone.

Besides interpreting all performances into American Sign Language, Clearwater reserves in area at the front of each stage for “folks in [wheel]chairs.” When some of the dancers, in their enthusiasm, and at Simone's continued exhortation to dance, moved from the shady edge of the field into the reserved area at the front as “Helen Fry” began, Simone was quick to remind the dancers of the need to leave the area clear for the people that needed that space, gently saying “We gotta respect the ropes.”

Other songs that followed included “Frankie's Gun,” and Simone playing guitar (while Ian played drums) on “Radio Song” (see accompanying photo). They were told their set was finished, but then were given an unexpected encore, as the audience demanded. We were surprised that “Glory Glory” was not played at this show, as we expected that as the standard closer in their usual set. Perhaps they were planning on saving “Glory Glory” for Sunday's show?

In closing, it was refreshing to see the band performing outside, with good visibility and

good sound. The weather was sunny and warm, the park along the banks of the Hudson River was

the perfect venue. The band delivered an up performance, winning over new fans. It was a

pleasant, peaceful vibe, instead of more the more raucous bar/coffeehouse/theater venues, with

poor sound and sight lines. The only disappointment was not getting to see them the next day,

due to heavy rains shutting down the festival.