The Handsome Family

Words that in their everyday surrealism have no parallel in contemporary writing…Music that mines the deep veins of fatalism in the Appalachian voice — GREIL MARCUS

As songwriters it’s the eerie, ancestral voice of ‘Anonymous’ they ultimately resemble the most — THE CHICAGO READER

This is music that moves forward by turning the clock back— haunting, primal and strangely heroic — THE LONDON TIMES

Dark, elemental, mischievous and mournful — MOJO

The Handsome Family write songs that are full of an awed sense of emotion in the face of nature’s mysterious beauty. Taking place under bowed branches and deep within winding corn mazes, The Handsome Family’s 2009 release, « Honey Moon » is an album of transcendence, of touching the divine, if only for a moment, through our love of someone else, even if it’s a praying mantis or a sleeping bird. Their music holds echoes of Americana in the truest sense— from medieval ballad to Appalachian holler to Tin Pan Alley and punk rock.

More recently (2010) the band has released « Scattered » a collection of lost demos and orphaned songs and odd covers that includes material culled from their entire 15 year career. The twosome’s seventh CD, « Last Days of Wonder » (June 2006), was one of Mojo’s Top Ten American Albums for 2006 and was called « an unqualified triumph » by Uncut. Their fourth album, « In the Air » was listed as one of the most important records of the first decade of the 21st century by Uncut. In 2004, a reader’s poll in Mojo named The Handsome Family’s third CD, « Through the Trees » one of the ten essential Americana records. UK national newspaper, « The Guardian » listed their song « Weightless Again » as one of the 100 best songs about Heartbreak.

Their songs have been covered by many artists, most notably: Andrew Bird, Christy Moore, Jeff Tweedy and Cerys Matthews. They have appeared in the movie, I’m Your Man (2005), a tribute to Leonard Cohen as well as Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus (2004). The Handsome Family record all their songs in a converted garage studio at the back of their house in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.

A recent live review (by Mike Ritchie) noted, « There’s a lot of smiling at this gig, on and off stage. That might surprise many people who have only read about the duo’s penchant for songs riddled with darkness, death and the macabre. But Rennie Sparks and her husband, Brett are funny live…through their chit-chat, the song introductions and the banter with the audience…this sell-out show was a knockabout celebration of the deadpan, a real joy… Rennie’s words plus Brett’s music and strong, mellow vocals create a magical potion of grim fairytales in a rock and blues pot with grinning unavoidable.

http://www.handsomefamily.com/