Husband and wife duo Brett and Rennie Sparks. Brett Sparks: Vox, music, guitars. Rennie Sparks: Words, vox, bass, melodica. Sometimes, brother
Darrell Sparks: Drums, vox and super special guests: Stephen Dorocke, David Coulter
Influences
Gentleman Jim Reeves, Hank Williams, Cole Porter, John Cage, Howe Gelb, noises in basements, John Coltrane, strangers at crossroads, abandoned graveyards, George Jones, stray dogs, hissing cats, Lithium Carbonate (1800mg daily), old men in windbreakers, old ladies in polyester turbans, the clenched fists of small children, Harry Smith and his ilk
Sounds Like
A little bit creepy and a little bit country.
DOWNLOAD OR PREVIEW TONS OF OUR SONGS THROUGH THIS ITUNES LINK ..
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.Rennie will answer all questions posted to her here (messages sent not comments) by consulting her bag of chicken bones and/or breaking a raw egg open in a crystal goblet.
Could I possibly be hearing a 12 string guitar in your music? Whatever it is, it's just magical to hear and I must say that I am in love with your music. Next time I come to Albuquerque (just gave a concert there in April), would love to meet you.
of course...we should do a def leppard tribute album together. you guys get "rock of ages" and we get "too late for love" and "die-hard the hunter. " lets make it happen
A few weeks ago I was watching the movie "The Promotion" and during a scene towards the end I noticed that the music sounded familiar. It was "Don't Be Scared"! Even though I would rather have heard y'all doing it I was happy to hear it anyway. Hope you are doing fantastically!
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