The Handsome Family

The Handsome Family are husband and wife Brett and Rennie Sparks. I went to see them play is Galway's famous Roisin Dubh on Saturday.

Their genius (yes, genius) is that they have created a new genre of music called Gothic Country. They didn't do this on purpose. It just kind of happened that way. Rennie just naturally brings the Mary Shelley to Brett's George Jones. It's an invigorating cocktail. You should try it.

Both Brett and myself were drinking bottles of Erdinger. Rennie was drinking nothing stronger than water. She's the sensible one. When she isn't worrying about snakes, spiders, little sparrows and the loneliness of magnets she worries about how she's going to get the laundry done.

Brett wasn't just drinking Erdinger though. He had three other different bottles of beer and a pint of stout in front of him. Either he was making full use of the entire band's rider or he was aiming for a serious beer buzz. I suspect both. He was very pissed at one stage and seemed obsessed with a member of the audience who had "no feet". But, as the show progressed, he sobered up somewhat and, presumably, the individual got his feet back.

What works so well about the Handsome Family is this. On the face of it one might regard them as extremely competent George Jones/Johnny Cash copyists. Some of the songs even pay homage to the genre with some whistling and faux sentimental spoken word songs. But all of this becomes weirdly beautiful when Brett brings his churrigueresque vocal stylings to bear on Rennie's macabre and haunting lyrics. So we have a large drunk bearded man singing in a deep country-inflected baritone:

I want to kiss you in thickets and dripping wet glades

As the stars rub against the dark skin of space

Hawk moths are supping the night-blooming rose

A honey as sweet as the moon sugar glow

Fantastic stuff.

Woke up with a stinking hangover. I'd only had five Erdingers. I have serious doubts about it's Reinheitsgebot credentials. Still, I thought, as I raised my throbbing head from the pillow "Thank Christ that's all I was drinking".