The Handsome Family announce the release of their eleventh studio album, Hollow, which began with a scream in the night.
One of my favourite music documentaries is ‘Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus‘, the 2003 musical Odyssey starring Jim White and his strange journey through, what feels like, the forgotten backwaters of America…“do you think this place is on the map?”
“The first thing that struck us was everybody in the Sears Roebuck catalog was perfect. Wasn’t any bald heads. Everybody had all the fingers that was coming to them.” It’s a land heavily driven by stories – the good and the evil, from the wild honky-tonk Saturday nights to Sunday morning’s hell-fire and damnation sermon…ideal inspiration for a murder ballad or two. Alongside Jim, it featured music from Johnny Dowd, 16 Horsepower, David Johansen, and, of course…songwriting and marriage partners Brett and Rennie Sparks, aka The Handsome Family, whose music just seems made for the sorrow-dreams of backwaters and forgotten lands. Asked to describe their music Brett says, “Western gothic.” It is music inspired by the abandoned strip malls of desert America where cracked pavement shimmers with heat and thorny weeds slowly reclaim the land.
Brett writes the music, and Rennie writes the words. Their work has been covered by many artists, including Jeff Tweedy, Andrew Bird and most recently, Phoebe Bridgers. Their song “Far From Any Road” was the opening theme for HBO’s True Detective season one and still receives thousands of Shazams every week from all over the world.
They have just announced the release of their eleventh studio album, Hollow (out Sep. 8, 2023), an album that began with a scream in the night (more on below)…it delves into the natural world at the edges of the man-made. It is a record lush with leaves and shadows and echoing with occult mystery.
It begins with the dream-inspired “Joseph”…
Brett on “Joseph”:
“It was the last bleak winter months of the pandemic last year. We had been working on the record the entire time, but at this point, the lockdown, isolation and dread had sapped us of our creative energy. However, we were hoping to write 2 or 3 more standout songs to flesh out the record.
“At the time, we had fallen into a weird alternate sleep pattern. I was in the habit of staying up until 4am before going to bed. Rennie, on the other hand, woke up and began her day at around 5am. One night as I lay in bed waiting to drift into sleep, Rennie started mumbling. Talking in her sleep. She grew louder and louder, ’til she was screaming, “Come into the circle, Joseph. There’s no moon tonight!
“This was frightening, but at the same time, it was compelling. In other words, it would make a great chorus. I got out of bed and wrote the words down. The next day, Rennie added verses—commands, ritual incantations, destructive procedures, investigations and so on.
“This song wrote itself.” – Brett Sparks
Handsome Family songs may be dark, but there’s always laughter on stage. Rennie sings as well as plays banjo and bass. She often introduces songs with seemingly unrelated stories. Brett, with his deep baritone and stentorian presence, is the undeniable centre of stage. The two are often joined by multi-instrumentalists Alex McMahon and Jason Toth as well as fans, new and old, some returning, again and again, to see them live over the decades.
“We’re astonished to be breathing,” Rennie says about the band’s longevity, “Let alone still be inspired to write songs and sing together. There’s been a lot of smashed coffee cups in our house over the years, but we’re still unable to resist the urge to make music.”
Hollow Track list:
- Joseph
- Two Black Shoes
- The King of Everything
- Skunks
- The Oldest Water
- Mothballs
- Shady Lake
- To The Oaks
- Strawberry Moon
- Invisible Man
- Good Night
OFFICIAL WEBSITE | YOUTUBE | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK | TWITTER