There was a point back in high school when I traded in all my Dylan CDs.  Not sure why.  Maybe I just got tired Dylan’s persistent drone.  Maybe it was around the time I bought my first electric guitar.  Maybe it was just because I wanted enough credits at the CD store to buy the newest Blues Traveler, Soul Asylum, or Gin Blossoms album.  Or cash for another Reese’s Cup Blizzard at Dairy Queen.

Whatever the reason, I didn’t listen to Dylan for a while.  So when I heard The Felice Brothers for the first time earlier today, I was surprised to see how much nostalgia I felt for those Dylan days, and how excited I was to see a bunch of brothers from Palenville, at the foot of the Catskill Mountains, retreading the Americana sound with some boozy bravado and patient, grounded ballads.  By no means are these guys a Dylan cover band, but it’s hard to hear them for the first time—especially songs like “Frankie’s Gun,” a sing-a-long bar anthem—and not think of those early Dylan albums.

I’ve only heard the MySpace tracks so far, but it’s pretty hard not to like these guys, even if you get the sense that they’ve crafted their music to evoke Depression-era mountain-town crooners…but that’s what Dylan was doing, right?  (No, really, am I right about that?)  And the lyrics touch on some social issues, albeit in a grammatical construction that I’m not so sure still flourishes those few hours’ drive upstate (they do have cable TV up there, after all):

I saw a man hit my mom one time, really
I hurt him so damn bad I had to hide in Jersey
Called my mama told her
In the dresser
There’s ten or twenty dollars but there ain’t no lesser
That’s for to take my sister to the picture show

But, hey, we are talking about saloon songs here, so there is plenty a’ mention of the hard stuff, and sodden longing.  Take “Whiskey in My Whiskey,” which speaks for itself, or “Love Me Tenderly:”

A bottle of scotch
A dimesack and a diamond watch
Wouldn’t you like that
A bottle of gin (what)
A typewriter and a violin
Wouldn’t you like that

Hoping to catch up with these guys when they’re back in the area early November.  Maybe even for a session in The Listening Room at some point.  Apparently, they’re pretty big in the UK-