The folk-rock band The Felice Brothers, who have been releasing music for over 20 years, has a tribute album in the works. Felice County Fair is slated to release on October 16th via Free Flight Records/Sun Mountain Records and was put together by Brandy Schultz, longtime fan of The Felice Brothers and wife of The Lumineers frontman Wesley Schultz. Yesterday (July 17th), both Bright Eyes and The Lumineers released their contributions to the upcoming tribute album, per Stereogum.

Indie rock band Bright Eyes covered the 2008 track “Wonderful Life.” Their version is a faithful take on the original song, with a slightly more dreamlike feel. Conor Oberst, the lead singer of Bright Eyes, spoke on the cover and shared his admiration for The Felice Brothers. “Whatever little check marks in my heart need to be checked to make the perfect music, they check all those things,” he said. “The poetry is there, the soulfulness is there, the songcraft. Everything is so genuine. I want the world for them, and I want people to have the same experience I’ve had with how they’ve transformed my life with their art.”

The Lumineers, an indie folk band, covered the 2019 song “The Kid,” offering a slower, almost more melancholic take on it. Of The Felice Brothers, frontman Wesley Schultz said, “When Brandy and I first started dating, we each made a mix CD for each other, like a playlist. We each put The Felice Brothers on our playlists. It was then, I knew she was a keeper. A lot of our initial falling in love was listening to the Felice Brothers.”

​The two cover tracks provide a promising and exciting glimpse into the forthcoming tribute record, with the full project featuring Felice Brothers’s covers from artists like Brandon Flowers, Deer Tick and Bebe Stockwell.

Photo Credit: Owen Ela