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 HANDOME FAMILY is Brett and Rennie Sparks who live in Albuquerque,
New Mexico. Their seventh CD, Last
Days of Wonder (June. 2006) was one of Mojo’s top ten American Albums for
2006 and called “an unqualified triumph” by Uncut. Of their sixth CD, Singing Bones, The UK’s Independent wrote, “Rarely, even in
the fatalistic world of country music, has the precarious mystery of
mortality been captured with such poetic grace as on Singing Bones.”
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).
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.
Last Days of Wonder is a
collection of love songs sung in airports, garbage dumps, drive-thru
windows and shark-infested waters. The CD celebrates the little
miraculous moments of beauty found in everyday life: a golf course
shining in the rain, hanging lights bouncing in the breeze, pigeons
singing from billboards, trees blooming in squares of dirt. The songs
linger on those moments when we’re pulled from the ordinary to feel
awed by mystery, bewildered by beauty, terrified by the vast unknowable
around us (whether we wander through shady groves or crowded parking
lots).
Brett Sparks, who writes the music, draws from medieval melody,
country-politan string arrangements, tin-pan alley crooners, and dusty
hillbilly records to weave together the fabric of this record. Rennie
Sparks, who writes the lyrics, makes magical realism from polar
adventure stories, pagan hunting songs and her own time spent (like
most people) riding up elevators, staring out hotel room windows, and
driving interstate highways. The entire album was recorded over a
year's time in the converted garage studio at the back of the Sparks'
Albuquerque house. Brett recorded it all on a Mac and a whole mess of
wires, microphones and little metal boxes. Alongside the usual guitar,
bass and drums you will hear mellotrons, ukulele, banjo, bowed wine
glasses, and trombone.
Brett and Rennie (The Handsome Family) have been married for 18 years.
In their live performances The Handsome Family are sometimes up to a
six-piece band and sometimes just Brett and Rennie with (or without) a
laptop computer.
CDs
Last Days of Wonder, Carrot Top Records, USA; Loose, Europe
(minus Benelux and Ireland); Independent Records, Ireland; Bertus
(Benelux); Spunk!, Australia, New Zealand, 6/06
Singing Bones, Carrot Top Records, USA; Loose, Europe
(minus Benelux and Ireland); Independent Records, Ireland; Bertus
(Benelux); Spunk!, Australia, New Zealand, 10/03.
Live at Schuba's, Digital Club Network, 9/02
Smothered and Covered, self-released 7/02
Twilight, CD, Carrot Top Records, USA; Loose, England;
Independent Records, Ireland; Trocadero, Europe. 9/01.
In the Air, CD, Carrot Top Records, USA; Loose, England;
Independent Records, Ireland; Trocadero, Europe. 2/00.
Down in the Valley, An anthology of past CDs, Independent
Records, Europe, 11/99.
Through the Trees, CD, Carrot Top Records, 1/98, USA;
Loose, 3/98, Europe.
Milk and Scissors, CD, Carrot Top Records, USA; Scout,
5 /96, Europe.
Odessa, CD, Carrot Top Records, USA; 2/95; Scout, 5
/96, Europe.
SINGLES
"My Beautiful Bride," Magwheel Records, Canada, 8/99
"I Know You Are There"
"Telephones and Telescopes"
SONGS ON COMPILATIONS
"Weightless Again", K-Tel Alt. "Exposed Roots"
Alt-Country Compilation, 8/99
"Moving Furniture Around," Loose, New Sounds of
the Old West, 2/98
"Trail of Time," Poor Little Knitter on the Road,
Bloodshot Records, 10/99
"Barbara Allen," Straight Outta Boone County,
Bloodshot Records, 3/97
"Moving Furniture Around," For A Life of Sin,
Bloodshot Records, 6/94.
OTHER ARTISTS
"So Much Wine" and "Peace in the Valley Again" covered by Christy
Moore on his cd, "Burning Times" (2005)
"Weightless Again" covered by Cerys Matthew's
"Don't Be Scared" on Andrew Bird's Weather Systems,
2003
"The Sad Milkman" and "The Snowbird,"
Sally Timms, Bloodshot Records, Twilight Laments for Lost
Buckeroos, 11/99
"Drunk By Noon," Sally Timms, Cowboy Sally,
Bloodshot Records, 3/97
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