The Handsome Family are nearly halfway through their biggest UK tour to date which is good news if you happen to live near the places they haven’t been yet. 25 years into their career now, Rennie and Brett Sparks’ twisted take on Americana was given a boost when a track from their 2003 ‘Singing Bones’ album ‘Far From Any Road’ was plucked from relative obscurity to be used as the theme tune for the first season of ‘True Detective’ in 2015. Since then, the track has been streamed over 50 million times and counting.
Even before this worldwide success, the band weren’t short of admirers, counting Bruce Springsteen and Ringo Starr amongst their fans, and with the likes of Jeff Tweedy, Amanda Palmer, Cerys Matthews, Christy Moore and Andrew Bird all having covered their songs.
The Handsome Family have released 11 albums since 1995’s ‘Odessa’. Their 1998 album, ‘Through The Trees’, was named by Mojo magazine as one of the “10 essential Americana records of all time”, with The Guardian calling the album’s opening track ‘Weightless Again’ one of the “100 best songs ever written about heartbreak”. Uncut declared their 2000 album ‘In The Air’ to be “One of the most important records of the 21st century”.
In 2016, the Handsome Family released ‘Unseen’, supposedly inspired by an incident at an airport lounge when a middle-aged businessman, accompanied by a McDonald’s meal, sat down on Renee’s lap, swearing that he thought the chair was empty. This incident provided rich inspiration for an album which explored the unseen stories, people, and places of the American West. Mojo declared the album to be “The Handsome Family’s masterpiece”.
The remaining dates of their UK tour are as follows:
MON 12 MARCH
Aberdeen, The Lemon Tree
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TUE 13 MARCH
Stirling, The Tolbooth
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THU 15 MARCH
London, Round Chapel
SAT 17 MARCH
Leeds, Howard Assembly Room
SUN 18 MARCH
Sheffield, The Plug
TUE 20 MARCH
Norwich, The Waterfront
WED 21 MARCH
Cambridge, The Junction
THU 22 MARCH
Bristol, St Georges
FRI 23 MARCH
Southampton, The Brook
SAT 24 MARCH
Brighton, St Georges Church
SUN 25 MARCH
Folkestone, The Quarterhouse
