Sid The Cat Presents James Felice: 10-piece band conducted and arranged by Nathaniel Walcott 1/28/2027 at Sid The Cat Auditorium James Felice’s sense of home is never out of reach, even as he brashly squares up with that relentless cosmic indifference. In his sweeping new album Homeworld Blue, Felice’s masterful artistry is on full display with expansive orchestral production and a depth of writing that makes even visceral Biblical imagery feel effortless. The charge, it seems, in the grandeur, is an urgent reminder that Felice states in the opening track, “When you leave, you’re not going home.” Home is right here. “I look for warmth and hopefulness in a world that is overwhelmingly dark and brutal,” Felice explains. “It may have a fatalistic impersonal twirl to it, but we get to map our meaning onto this life. I find that to be so beautiful, and so interesting—all of us small people and our petty concerns. There’s a lot of beauty to find.” There is certainly no shortage of beauty to be found on the album. Recorded in Omaha, Nebraska, with Nate Walcott of Bright Eyes at the producer’s helm, Homeworld Blue is a magnificent and aspirational work of art that accomplishes everything it sets out to do. Its lush horns, intricate strings, pounding pianos, and authoritative vocal deliveries are immediately evocative, while one gets the sense you could hear something new on every listen. Felice is at the top of his game after a lifetime of preparation. Felice is adept at conveying cosmic meaning in seemingly simple forms—he has twenty years of experience in acclaimed folk band The Felice Brothers and is the photographer behind hundreds of intimate images of insects—but he knew from the beginning of this project that his artistic approach to Homeworld Blue would be different.