DOWNLOAD: The Duke and The King - "If You Ever Get Famous" (MP3)

The debut disc from Simone Felice and Robert 'Chicken' Burke's new project, The Duke and The King, drops Tuesday and the band is playing a CD release show at Mercury Lounge that night.

Tracks on this new disc are somewhat bittersweet and Simone Felice talked about some of the inspiration behind this new project in an open letter that he posted to his MySpace page (below).

"Dear Friends and Family, this is just a little note to show my deepest gratitude for all the letters and concern I've received over my absence from The Felice Brothers stage over the past few months, and for the boundless love and belief you've shown for our music over the years.

This winter has been a time of tragedy, sadness, and regeneration in my life. I'd been working on a new book and recording some songs with my dear old friend Robert close to home in the Catskill Mountains and my long time love and I were expecting our first child. Then in late January out of the blue we lost our baby girl and it really broke my heart and turned my world inside out. In the process of mourning it helped a lot to turn some of the sorrow and revelation into songs and after a while I came back to Robert and I's cabin/studio to put them down and to finish the other recordings we started.

I've been writing a lot this past year, and seeing as my role in the band was always more of a supportive one (helping with lyrics, drumming, harmonies and the occasional lead vocal) I've been compelled to find a vehicle that would help me be able to share all these new songs and stories. So I hope you like The Duke & The King, the songs mean a lot to us, being as they are, after all, the soundtrack of a long fateful winter. We'll be playing a handful of debut shows come spring, and I'll be working on finishing the novel and spending more time close to home. The boys have a couple great drummers working with them now (chief among them our close friend Jeremy 'The Searcher' who's produced all our records and was one of my most important drum teachers in the long ago, and Dave, an awesome young hitter who I've had the privilege of working with this spring to pass on some of the stank codes of our tradition), and they all have a very strong and dynamite vision of how to carry the music and poetry we've all made together into the future. I'll be making special appearances at Felice shows from time to time to share the stage with my brothers as they support 'Yonder Is The Clock' (our proudest effort to date) and beyond, something I look forward to with an earnest and warm heart.

It's very nice that I can be candid in sharing these heavy life changes with you guys, though the comfort I feel in doing so is no surprise considering how loving and supportive you've been in helping us build this big old crazy family together, a family as sacred as it is rowdy! Please know that it really is you all who've made this never-ending story of ours possible, and that this knowledge has never and will never be lost on me."
-- An Open Letter from Simone Felice (from MySpace)

For the CD release show, The Duke & The King are playing with Maya Solovely, The Morning Pages and Tyburn Saints. Tickets are $12 in advance and $14 day of show.

Links:
The Duke & The King's MySpace Profile