Unpretentious Americana from folk
royalty
The Duke and the King are best known
for conning and manipulating their way downriver with Huck and Jim in
Mark Twain’s classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and the
duo has inspired Simone Felice’s (yes, of those Felices) new folk
outfit The Duke & The King. Their debut album Nothing Gold Can
Stay certainly sounds like it was motivated by a few days lost in
thought on a raft, with most tracks featuring a lazy, sun-soaked feel
and reflective lyrics. The album is at its sweetest with love-laced
tracks like “Water Spider” and “Summer Morning Rain,” but it
truly shines when it tackles deeper issues. “Union Street,” a
story of growing up with pills and familial dysfunction, blends right
into “Lose My Self,” a haunting three minutes of the repeated
line, “It makes me want to lose myself.” But closer “One More
American Song,” on which Felice makes bittersweet nostalgia
especially heartfelt, really keeps Nothing Gold Can Stay from being
just one more American folk album.
Listen to The Duke & The King on MySpace.