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: #2008 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.

Clock this one
There was always enough in the band's previous hit-and-miss efforts to suggest that they had a really big album in them, and here it is. As satisfying a slab of rough-hewn dust bowl Americana as you're likely to come across, there's much to enjoy here.

Rockers such as "Memphis Flu" "Chicken Wire" and "Run Chicken Run" (something of an obsession with feathered fowl, perhaps?) zip along with admirable and frenetic zest but even better are some of the slower songs, such as "Rise and Shine", the Waitsian "Sailor Song" and, best of all, the lengthy, sprawling lament "Cooperstown" which slowly insinuates itself in your consciousness and, once there, stubbornly takes hold.

The early-Dylan vocal comparisons are unavoidable, never more so than on the moving "Boy From Lawrence County", and there's no getting away from it - Ian Felice's voice does naturally resemble the young Robert Allen Zimmerman's. And while they still have a long way to go in that respect, there are nevertheless more than enough flashes of songwriting and lyrical sparkle to suggest that the resemblance may yet prove to be more than purely superficial.