From quiet cities to mountaintop views, the Hudson Valley has lengthy been a haven for artists looking for house, inspiration, and neighborhood. There’s one thing within the water, one thing within the air, and as a latest Hudson Valley resident myself, I’ve skilled this magic firsthand. Every week, I’ll communicate with a special artist about what retains them rooted right here – and the way this singular area continues to form their lives and their artwork.
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Immediately, Ulster county native James Felice of The Felice Brothers displays on his experiences as an artist dwelling in Kingston, New York.
The Felice Brothers first emerged from the Hudson Valley almost twenty years in the past with a gloriously ramshackle sound that drew on the whole lot from Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan to Walt Whitman and Flannery O’Connor. In only a few brief years, the group – at the moment comprised of Ian Felice on guitar/lead vocals, James Felice on keyboards/vocals, Jesske Hume on bass, and Will Lawrence on drums – went from busking within the subway to enjoying Radio Metropolis Music Corridor with Vivid Eyes and showing in all places from the Newport People Competition to Levon Helm’s Midnight Ramble. Starting with 2007’s ‘Tonight At The Arizona,’ the band helped pave the best way for the trendy folks revival, whereas on the identical time difficult its boundaries and conventions with daring sonic experimentation and unyielding integrity. The New York Occasions likened their music to “the rootsy mysticism of the Band,” whereas Rolling Stone praised the “scrappiness” of their “folk-rock noir,” and The Guardian hailed their songs as “impeccably crafted, with literary-minded lyrics which are each playful and profound.”
The band’s latest document, ‘Valley of Deserted Songs’ (2024), marks The Felice Brothers’ debut for Conor Oberst’s new Million Stars label and showcases the group at their most intimate and unvarnished. Balancing hope and despair in equal measure, the album explores the seek for that means and connection by way of the eyes of a wide-ranging forged of misfits and outcasts, and although the recordings right here span a number of years of almost-lost tunes, the result’s a completely cohesive assortment that manages to really feel each completely timeless and significantly attuned to the current all of sudden.
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Atwood Journal: What initially drew you to the Hudson Valley – or saved you right here, or introduced you again – and the way has this place formed the best way you reside, create, and join with others?
James Felice: I used to be conceived, born, and raised within the Hudson Valley. I by no means left, I’ve by no means even left Ulster county! I by no means even thought-about dwelling in one other place. I’ll probably die right here, too. That is my dwelling and has formed most each a part of the person that I’m.
There’s one thing undeniably particular in regards to the Hudson Valley – from its epic mountains and luxurious forests to its winding rivers, rolling hills, and vibrant, tight-knit artistic communities. What do you’re keen on most about dwelling right here, and the way does the area affect your artwork, your mindset, or your sense of dwelling?
James Felice: I can’t divide myself from this place. It’s the water wherein I swim. Most the whole lot I’m should has first bounded from a Catskill mountain stream, and should now be flowing down the Hudson River, should have been drawn up into the willows and the dying hemlocks and the gregarious and proud pink oaks, and lay in shallow clear swimming pools of deserted bluestone quarries.
Tucked between New York Metropolis and Albany, the Hudson Valley can really feel like each a retreat and a crossroads. How does being on this distinctive, multi-faceted house inform your identification as an artist, and what has it allowed you to faucet into that you just may not have discovered elsewhere?
James Felice: For me, it’s neither retreat nor crossroads. I acknowledge that it’s to metropolis folks and transplants and weekenders looking for respite and quiet and nation quaintness. However this place has its personal folks and it’s personal tradition and historical past unbiased from the NYC’s affect.
It’s fascinating…We profit and endure in equal half from the tradition and cash that extends up the Hudson River like a vine. Its fruits maintain our service trade which is crucial to our economic system, and offers us with many fascinating and dynamic individuals who, in the most effective case, spend their cash and their time with us generously. A few of them even keep and make this place their correct dwelling, and their presence is an unquestionable boon. However this vine can also choke us. The overwhelming wealth of lots of the those who come right here has displaced many people, and the overwhelming tradition has erased a few of what has made this place so distinctive.
Individuals come right here to faucet the mountains. To faucet the ‘magic.’ We should be cautious to not faucet this place out. That we’ve to sustainably and rigorously feed again into the Hudson Valley what we drink from it. To maintain this lovely place verdant and provoking. Each dwelling and retreat. Each crossroads and driveway. Each vibrant and provoking, and simply one other place in America the place regular folks can afford to stay their lives with dignity.
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This was initially printed in a particular bodily version of Nourish in collaboration with Atwood Journal on June 13, 2025. Dive into the bodily version of that zine and be taught extra about Nourish at howdoyounourish.com!
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© Caitlin Greene
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