Track Listing

1. Big Surprise, The
2. Penn Station
3. Buried In Ice
4. Chicken Wire
5. Ambulance Man
6. Sailor Song
7. Katie Dear
8. Run Chicken Run
9. All When We Were Young
10. Boy From Lawrence County
11. Memphis Flu
12. Cooperstown
13. Rise And Shine

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1906 in Music
• Released on: 2009-04-13
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .16 pounds

CD Description
On their 2009 album, YONDER IS THE CLOCK, the Felice Brothers offer up another rootsy set that calls upon artists such as Bob Dylan and Tom Waits as key influences. Anchored by siblings Ian, James, and Simone Felice, who hail from the Catskills region of upstate New York, the ensemble charms with scrappy tunes such as the rollicking "Penn Station" and the wistful "Cooperstown."

Customer Reviews

Yonder is the clock
I pre ordered this album on the strength of thier previous work and was initially disappointed as it seemed to lack the 'barnstorming'(as The Guardian called it) appeal of thier previously self titled 'The Felice Brothers'. However, this initial reaction was assuageed on further listenings. It is in many ways more mature than previous offerings and has some tenderly smouldering tracks such as 'Ambulance Man' and 'All when we were young'; which creep up on you in an altogether agreeable way.
There is still some of the more raw stomping energy on tacks such as 'Memphis flu', which sounds as if it was recorded live in a hotel room (which is a compliment as I hate over production which takes away the soul of the music) and 'Run chicken run'. Over all it is another excellent slice of life as interpreted from The Felice Brothers and is highly recommended.

The ghosts of Dylan and the Band - and whats wrong with that?
This is more a collective review than one specifically for Yonder is the Clock since I so dearly love their debut Tonight at the Arizona I feel guilty for not reviewing it (how sad is that?)

The Felice Brothers hail from the Catskill Mountains outside New York. There must be something magical in the air. It is where Mercury Rev recorded the sublime "Deserters Songs". Both the latter and this album have a common theme namely the debt they owe to the Band. Garth Hudson played on Deserters Songs and the Felice Brothers are the spiritual heirs to one of the greatest set of musical purveyors of American music. (just listen to The Bands "Acadian Driftwood" for sheer emotional class). Finally to square the circle the Felice Brothers have played at Levon Helm's Midnight Ramble in Woodstock.

The Band were able to tap something very deep in American music. The Basement tapes have been subject to fascinating analysis in Griel Marcus's brilliant book "Invisible Republic" where he shows how Dylan and the Band drew on old and almost forgotten American folk and blues songs to pull together an intoxicating concoction. The Felice Brothers are in the same camp but with a new twist. This is music for the new depression and like the Basement tapes some of it is deadly serious while other parts are great fun. On their first album "Tonight at the Arizona" songs such as deep as Rockefeller Drugstore Blues sat alongside singalongs like "Roll on Arte" and all out Pogues style romps "Take this hammer". They repeated the trick on their second proper album "the Felice Brothers" with songs like the rocking "Frankie's Gun" juxtaposed with sad laments like "Wonderful life".

"Yonder is the Clock" is no great departure in this respect. Echo's abound of the Band, Dylan, Tom Waits, the Jayhawks and even the Waterboys in their "Fishermen Blues" guise. "Run chicken Run" is tremendous fun with truly daft lyrics and "Memphis Flu" could have been taken straight from the Basement tapes, sounding like a drunken singalong in a New Orleans bar. It is however the quieter ballads that really impress especially Cooperstown and Katie Dear. Throughout Ian Felice's throaty vocals are superb and the "Boy from Lawrence County" is my song of the year thus far.

All of this begs the question where the Felice Brothers go next? All their first three albums essentially plough the same furrow albeit with some of the most powerful songs of the noughties. The challenge is ensure that their unique brand of Americana doesn't become tired. The Band timed their end perfectly with the Last Waltz but the Felice's have a long way to go before any such swansong. They may however need to develop new directions hinted at on this albums better tracks but for now at least they are one of the best and most exciting bands on the planet.

Mark Twain inspired classic
The Mysterious Stranger was a book written by American legend Mark Twain. In it Twain wrote of an angel who is sent to earth to reveal to all his acolytes that life is meaningless and that their God is nothng but an indiffernece. The book is basiclly one man's rant against all religious belief and common opinioin. It is a masterpeice that is highly recommended by me. The Felice Brothers have taken the title of their third (and best) album from this book. It is a very fitting combination as this album is full of political (rather than religious) rage which goes some way to establishing this fine band as American legends much like Twain.

Refrences to religion do however permatate the record with Ian Felice singing of preachers, priests and the devil. When at the end of 'Cooperstown' he sings 'The Cloud Breaks/ And the pews shake/ And the preachers feet do pound/ As the rain beats the streets of Cooperstown' I can't help but recall 'A Hard-rains a' gonna Fall' by Dylan, which dealt with the subject of nuclear war, I wonder if this is an attempt to draw a line between the American religious right and the continued War on Terror(TM).

'Ambulance Man' also refrences heavy rain and impending doom. Ian Felice talks of long lost summers of innocence ('Where are your warm summer winds?/ Where has my lover been?') and then the anticipation of dread and horror ('Here comes the rain/ Making my bones quiver again') and finally he speaks of his death in a heartbraking chorus call ('Ambulance man/ Please let me ride/ I am at the end').

The Felice Brothers have always done the ramshackle rock 'n' roll to perfection, but it's the slower ballads that most impress here. The afore-mentioned 'Ambulance Man', 'Katie Dear' and 'All When We Were Young' all deserve special mention (I especially love the couplet on 'Katie Dear' when Felice sings 'Louisiana ain't that bad/ When all you've had's Louisiana' it is both heartbreaking and devishly funny). All the songs share the commom theme of long-lost innocence and fear of the future.

But talking of ramshackle rock 'n' roll, this album has plenty of great and potential future classics. The first is 'Penn Station' which deals with the death of a prisoner and his consequental battle of wills with the devil and God over the destination of his eternal soul, all this played out over a rollicking racket Johnny Cash would have been proud of. 'Run Chicken Run' and 'Chicken Wire' also continue the foot-stomping greatness, but I must especially mention the cover of Elder Curry's 'Memphis Flu' which was surely recorded in the Basement?.

With records like this you can easily fall into the trap of trying to deceipther meaning when there is none, but this album just seems so full of rage and dispair at the state of the pre-Obama America that you can't help but find meaning in almost every word uttered. This album feels like the full-stop on the Gerorge W Bush era.

This record really does feel like one of those great American albums of the 60's and 70's, think of 'Workingman's Blues', 'Music From Big Pink' or 'John Wesley Harding' and your somewhere close. I do think that some long-standing fans may feel dissapointed at first as maybe the album doesn't feature a single classic like 'Frankie's Gun' (from last years self-titled second album) but as a complete work and as a statement of rage at the current state of America's place in this world it is without doubt their finest acheivment to date.