The Handsome Family

THE HANDSOME FAMILY (songwriting and marriage partners Brett and Rennie Sparks) have been defining the dark end of Americana for over 30 years. Brett writes the music and Rennie writes the words. Their work has been covered by many artists including Jeff Tweedy,  Andrew Bird and 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.

Asked to describe their music Brett says, “Western gothic” — music inspired by the abandoned strip malls of desert America where thorny weeds slowly reclaim the land. 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 center of stage. The two are joined on-stage by multi-instrumentalists Alex McMahon (electric guitar, pedal steel) and Jason Toth (percussion and Omnichord).

The Handsome Family’s latest record Hollow (Sept, 2023) began with a scream in the night. “One night around 4 a.m.,” Brett says. “Rennie started screaming in her sleep. She screamed, ‘Come into the circle Joseph! There’s no moon tonight.’ Scary as it was, I thought, man, that’s a good chorus!”

Hollow delves into the natural world at the edges of the man-made. It is a record lush with leaves and shadows and occult mystery. The dream-inspired “Joseph”is followed by the haunting “Two Black Shoes” which filters a Portishead groove through the highway motels, homeless encampments and McMansions of post-pandemic America. The album closes with “Good Night,” a lullaby that at once soothes and threatens. Brett sings, “Time for Santa to sharpen his claws / Time for skin walkers / Time for the saw…” 

“My proudest musical moments,” says Brett. “Are the check Richard Starkey wrote to buy all our cds and the words, “The Handsome Family” written in David Bowie’s last notebook. “There’s been a lot of smashed coffee cups in our house over the years,” Rennie says, “but we’re still unable to resist the urge to make music.”

It’s been a good handful of years for Paul Jacobsen– touring through venues like the legendary CBGB’s (may it rest in peace) in New York and Hotel Café in Hollywood, playing shows with great acts like Sheryl Crow, John Hiatt, The Jayhawks, Ryan Bingham, Robert Earl Keen, Bowerbirds, Megafaun, Great Lake Swimmers, Laura Gibson, and a variety of others. He’s been a finalist in both the Telluride Bluegrass Troubadour and Rocky Mountain Folks Fest Songwriter contests, even singing onstage with bluegrass legend Sam Bush at Telluride. His songs have made their way onto radio across the country and around the world, into indie films, and into the ears of music lovers everywhere. Paul Jacobsen & The Madison Arm, his most recent album with his indispensable, dynamic band, was recorded over two years in basements, a Montana cabin, a Brooklyn living room, and a couple bona fide studios, and has garnered critical praise:

".. a straight-ahead winner of an album, full of fine songs…sad, majestic. Drawing upon strong lyrics and gorgeous backup vocals...The Madison Arm has made an album deserving of a larger audience." -Scott Murphy, Salt Lake Tribune

"They said it would be epic. And it was. It was epic." -Erin McKeown, singer/songwriter

"Folk-rock? Alt-country? Not sure what you’d label it, exactly; I just call it some of the best songwriting in these parts, delivered by masterfully skilled players." -Dan Nailen, Salt Lake City Weekly