The Handsome Family
Encyclopedia
The Handsome Family is an alternative country
band, formed in Chicago
, Illinois
.
Regarding the band name, Brett said in an interview: "It's just kind of a stupid name. We used to have this really obnoxious drummer, and he used to call me 'Handsome', that was his nickname for me, I think for sarcastic reasons... And he wanted to call it the Handsome family...and we thought it was funny, too. We thought it was a good name."
Formed in Chicago, Brett is originally from Texas
and Rennie from Long Island
. The band toured extensively throughout both America and Europe in support of early releases Odessa
(1994) and Milk and Scissors
(1996). During this time, Brett suffered an emotional breakdown, resulting in his hospitalization and diagnosis of bipolar disorder
.
Their third full-length album, Through the Trees
, was written in the aftermath of these events, and included a song inspired by Brett's experiences in a bipolar ward. The album was recorded in 1998, using Jeff Tweedy
's mobile studio. and brought the band to a wider audience. It was named the "Best New Country Album of the Year" by UNCUT
.
A growing following and raised profile allowed Brett and Rennie to give up their day jobs and work on the band full-time. They toured America and Europe again in support of the 2000 album In the Air
. In 2001, they moved to Albuquerque
, New Mexico, and released Twilight
, with Allmusic opining that the album leads "the listener down a lovely yet dark trail few would dare tread twice". In 2002, they released a live album, Live at Schuba's Tavern
, a recording from the In the Air tour from Chicago in December 2000. They have subsequently released the albums Singing Bones
(2003), and Last Days of Wonder
(2006) as well as the collections Smothered and Covered
(2003) and Scattered
(2010).
The band's latest studio album, Honey Moon
, was released in April 2009.
, bluegrass
, and murder ballad
s. Early recordings have rock
elements, but these were less evident from 1996's Milk and Scissors onwards.
Rennie's lyrics have a strong storytelling
component, drawing on themes from Gothic fiction
, as well as American folk music
, and often involving macabre subjects as murders, suicides and ghosts. Some songs are also based on actual historical figures or events, including the lives and deaths of Amelia Earhart
("Amelia Earhart vs. the Dancing Bear", on Milk and Scissors
), Emily Shore
("Emily Shore 1819-1839", on Milk and Scissors), Robert Wadlow
("The Giant of Illinois", on Through the Trees
), Natalie Wood
("Natalie Wood", an outtake
from Twilight
, which appears on Smothered and Covered
), and Nikola Tesla
("Tesla's Hotel Room", on Last Days of Wonder
).
Compilations and Live albums:
Alternative country
Alternative country is a loosely defined sub-genre of country music, which includes acts that differ significantly in style from mainstream or pop country music...
band, formed in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
.
History
The band was formed in 1993 by husband-and-wife duo Brett Sparks (vocals, guitar, keyboards) and Rennie Sparks (bass, banjo, vocals) and drummer Mike Werner, although the band would later revolve around Rennie, who writes the lyrics, and Brett, who writes the music, With guest musicians completing the band line-up for recordings and live work.Regarding the band name, Brett said in an interview: "It's just kind of a stupid name. We used to have this really obnoxious drummer, and he used to call me 'Handsome', that was his nickname for me, I think for sarcastic reasons... And he wanted to call it the Handsome family...and we thought it was funny, too. We thought it was a good name."
Formed in Chicago, Brett is originally from Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
and Rennie from Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
. The band toured extensively throughout both America and Europe in support of early releases Odessa
Odessa (The Handsome Family album)
Odessa is the first album released by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released 1994 by Carrot Top Records.-Track listing:# "Here's Hopin" – 3:26# "Arlene" – 3:37# "Pony" – 3:13# "One Way Up" – 3:19# "Water Into Wine" – 3:12...
(1994) and Milk and Scissors
Milk and Scissors
Milk and Scissors is the second album released by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released 1996 by Carrot Top Records, and by Scout Releases in the same year.-Track listing:...
(1996). During this time, Brett suffered an emotional breakdown, resulting in his hospitalization and diagnosis of bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder or bipolar affective disorder, historically known as manic–depressive disorder, is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a category of mood disorders defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated energy levels, cognition, and mood with or without one or...
.
Their third full-length album, Through the Trees
Through the Trees
Through the Trees is the fourth album released by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released 1998 by Carrot Top Records.Through the Trees was nominated by Mojo readers as one of the most important Americana CDs of the 1990s....
, was written in the aftermath of these events, and included a song inspired by Brett's experiences in a bipolar ward. The album was recorded in 1998, using Jeff Tweedy
Jeff Tweedy
Jeffrey Scot "Jeff" Tweedy is an American songwriter, musician and leader of the band Wilco. Tweedy joined rockabilly band The Plebes with high school friend Jay Farrar in the early 1980s, but Tweedy's musical interests caused one of Farrar's brothers to quit...
's mobile studio. and brought the band to a wider audience. It was named the "Best New Country Album of the Year" by UNCUT
UNCUT (magazine)
Uncut magazine, trademarked as UNCUT, is a monthly publication based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections...
.
A growing following and raised profile allowed Brett and Rennie to give up their day jobs and work on the band full-time. They toured America and Europe again in support of the 2000 album In the Air
In the Air (album)
In The Air is the fifth album released by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released 2000 by Carrot Top Records and comes as an enhanced audio CD with an additional video for the song "Amelia Earhart vs...
. In 2001, they moved to Albuquerque
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque is the largest city in the state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. The city population was 545,852 as of the 2010 Census and ranks as the 32nd-largest city in the U.S. As...
, New Mexico, and released Twilight
Twilight (The Handsome Family album)
Twilight is the sixth album released by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released 2001 by Carrot Top Records.-Track listing:# "The Snow White Diner" – 4:01# "Passenger Pigeons" – 4:29# "A Dark Eye" – 3:53# "There Is A Sound" – 3:26...
, with Allmusic opining that the album leads "the listener down a lovely yet dark trail few would dare tread twice". In 2002, they released a live album, Live at Schuba's Tavern
Live at Schuba's Tavern
Live at Schuba's Tavern is a live album by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released 2002 by Digital Club Network. It contains songs as well as short jokes or stories told by the band.-Track listing:# "Amelia Earhart Vs...
, a recording from the In the Air tour from Chicago in December 2000. They have subsequently released the albums Singing Bones
Singing Bones
Singing Bones is the sixth studio album released by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released 2003 by Carrot Top Records.-Track listing:# "The Forgotten Lake" – 3:46# "Gail With The Golden Hair" – 3:16# "24-Hour Store" – 4:52...
(2003), and Last Days of Wonder
Last Days of Wonder
Last Days Of Wonder is the seventh studio album released by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released 2006 by Carrot Top Records.-Track listing:# "Your Great Journey" – 3:13# "Tesla's Hotel Room" – 3:56# "These Golden Jewels" – 3:32...
(2006) as well as the collections Smothered and Covered
Smothered and Covered
Smothered and Covered is a collection of outtakes, demos, and rarities by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released in 2003 through Handsome Family Music.-Track listing:#"There's A City" - 3:12#*outtake from In the Air...
(2003) and Scattered
Scattered (The Handsome Family album)
Scattered is a second compilation of demos, outtakes and rarities by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released 2010 through Handsome Family Music and is the sequel of Smothered and Covered.-Track listing:#"The Lost Soul" - 3:21...
(2010).
The band's latest studio album, Honey Moon
Honey Moon (The Handsome Family album)
Honey Moon is the eighth studio album released by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released 2009 by Carrot Top Records.-Track listing:# "Linger, Let Me Linger" – 3:34# "Little Sparrows" – 3:08# "My Friend" – 4:56...
, was released in April 2009.
Musical style
The Handsome Family's style is a blend of traditional countryCountry music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
, bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
, and murder ballad
Murder ballad
Murder ballads are a sub-genre of the traditional ballad form, the lyrics of which form a narrative describing the events of a murder, often including the lead-up and/or aftermath...
s. Early recordings have rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
elements, but these were less evident from 1996's Milk and Scissors onwards.
Rennie's lyrics have a strong storytelling
Storytelling
Storytelling is the conveying of events in words, images and sounds, often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation and in order to instill moral values...
component, drawing on themes from Gothic fiction
Gothic fiction
Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. Gothicism's origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, subtitled "A Gothic Story"...
, as well as American folk music
American folk music
American folk music is a musical term that encompasses numerous genres, many of which are known as traditional music or roots music. Roots music is a broad category of music including bluegrass, country music, gospel, old time music, jug bands, Appalachian folk, blues, Cajun and Native American...
, and often involving macabre subjects as murders, suicides and ghosts. Some songs are also based on actual historical figures or events, including the lives and deaths of Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart was a noted American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first woman to receive the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean...
("Amelia Earhart vs. the Dancing Bear", on Milk and Scissors
Milk and Scissors
Milk and Scissors is the second album released by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released 1996 by Carrot Top Records, and by Scout Releases in the same year.-Track listing:...
), Emily Shore
Emily Shore
Margaret Emily Shore was a young English woman who kept a journal from the age of eleven until her death from consumption at the age of nineteen. Extracts of her journal were published by her sisters Louisa and Arabella in 1891...
("Emily Shore 1819-1839", on Milk and Scissors), Robert Wadlow
Robert Wadlow
Robert Pershing Wadlow was the tallest person in history for whom there is irrefutable evidence. Wadlow is sometimes known as the Alton Giant or Giant of Illinois because he was born and grew up in Alton, Illinois.Wadlow reached in height and weighed at his death at age 22...
("The Giant of Illinois", on Through the Trees
Through the Trees
Through the Trees is the fourth album released by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released 1998 by Carrot Top Records.Through the Trees was nominated by Mojo readers as one of the most important Americana CDs of the 1990s....
), Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood, born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko was an American film and television actress. After first working in films as a child, Wood became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25 years old.Wood began acting in movies at the...
("Natalie Wood", an outtake
Outtake
An outtake is a portion of a work that is removed in the editing process and not included in the work's final, publicly released version. In the digital era, significant outtakes have been appended to CD and DVD reissues of many albums and films as bonus tracks or features, in film often, but not...
from Twilight
Twilight (The Handsome Family album)
Twilight is the sixth album released by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released 2001 by Carrot Top Records.-Track listing:# "The Snow White Diner" – 4:01# "Passenger Pigeons" – 4:29# "A Dark Eye" – 3:53# "There Is A Sound" – 3:26...
, which appears on Smothered and Covered
Smothered and Covered
Smothered and Covered is a collection of outtakes, demos, and rarities by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released in 2003 through Handsome Family Music.-Track listing:#"There's A City" - 3:12#*outtake from In the Air...
), and Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer...
("Tesla's Hotel Room", on Last Days of Wonder
Last Days of Wonder
Last Days Of Wonder is the seventh studio album released by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released 2006 by Carrot Top Records.-Track listing:# "Your Great Journey" – 3:13# "Tesla's Hotel Room" – 3:56# "These Golden Jewels" – 3:32...
).
Albums
- OdessaOdessa (The Handsome Family album)Odessa is the first album released by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released 1994 by Carrot Top Records.-Track listing:# "Here's Hopin" – 3:26# "Arlene" – 3:37# "Pony" – 3:13# "One Way Up" – 3:19# "Water Into Wine" – 3:12...
(1994) Carrot Top RecordsCarrot Top RecordsCarrot Top Records is a Chicago-based independent record label owned and operated by Patrick Monaghan.-Artist roster:* Antietam* The Bitter Tears* The Coctails* Darling Downs* Disco Inferno* Duplex Planet Radio Hour* The Handsome Family* KatJonBand... - Milk and ScissorsMilk and ScissorsMilk and Scissors is the second album released by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released 1996 by Carrot Top Records, and by Scout Releases in the same year.-Track listing:...
(1996) Carrot Top Records - Invisible HandsInvisible Hands (The Handsome Family album)Invisible Hands is an EP released by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released 1997 as a limited Germany only, vinyl only release by Scout Releases. Only 1000 copies were pressed. The release contains an A4 lyrics sheet which states that "The House Carpenter" is a traditional,...
(1997) Scout (Germany only EP release) - Through the TreesThrough the TreesThrough the Trees is the fourth album released by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released 1998 by Carrot Top Records.Through the Trees was nominated by Mojo readers as one of the most important Americana CDs of the 1990s....
(1998) Carrot Top Records - In the AirIn the Air (album)In The Air is the fifth album released by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released 2000 by Carrot Top Records and comes as an enhanced audio CD with an additional video for the song "Amelia Earhart vs...
(2000) Carrot Top Records - TwilightTwilight (The Handsome Family album)Twilight is the sixth album released by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released 2001 by Carrot Top Records.-Track listing:# "The Snow White Diner" – 4:01# "Passenger Pigeons" – 4:29# "A Dark Eye" – 3:53# "There Is A Sound" – 3:26...
(2001) Carrot Top Records - Singing BonesSinging BonesSinging Bones is the sixth studio album released by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released 2003 by Carrot Top Records.-Track listing:# "The Forgotten Lake" – 3:46# "Gail With The Golden Hair" – 3:16# "24-Hour Store" – 4:52...
(2003) Carrot Top Records - Last Days of WonderLast Days of WonderLast Days Of Wonder is the seventh studio album released by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released 2006 by Carrot Top Records.-Track listing:# "Your Great Journey" – 3:13# "Tesla's Hotel Room" – 3:56# "These Golden Jewels" – 3:32...
(2006) Carrot Top Records - Honey MoonHoney Moon (The Handsome Family album)Honey Moon is the eighth studio album released by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released 2009 by Carrot Top Records.-Track listing:# "Linger, Let Me Linger" – 3:34# "Little Sparrows" – 3:08# "My Friend" – 4:56...
(2009) Carrot Top Records
Compilations and Live albums:
- Down in the ValleyDown in the Valley (album)Down in the Valley is an Ireland only compilation of songs by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released 1999 by Independent Records...
(1999) Independent Records (Ireland only release) - Live at Schuba's TavernLive at Schuba's TavernLive at Schuba's Tavern is a live album by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released 2002 by Digital Club Network. It contains songs as well as short jokes or stories told by the band.-Track listing:# "Amelia Earhart Vs...
(2002) Digital Club Network - Smothered and CoveredSmothered and CoveredSmothered and Covered is a collection of outtakes, demos, and rarities by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released in 2003 through Handsome Family Music.-Track listing:#"There's A City" - 3:12#*outtake from In the Air...
(2003) Handsome Family Music - ScatteredScattered (The Handsome Family album)Scattered is a second compilation of demos, outtakes and rarities by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released 2010 through Handsome Family Music and is the sequel of Smothered and Covered.-Track listing:#"The Lost Soul" - 3:21...
(2010) Handsome Family Music