And now, a break from the political dialogue that seems to be sweeping the land like an army barracks broom on a Sunday morning.
The Handsome Family are fantastic songwriters. The Handsome Family are other-wordly lyricists of the dark and downtrodden. They write the kinds of songs that force you to listen to their recordings, over and over and over and over, reveling in their dark genius, until finally, a Handsome Family cd has defined an entire season of your life.
Yes, music that strong.
One of my favorite Handsome Family Songs is a diddy called Arlene. The first time I listened to it, I felt like worms were crawling under my skin once I realized it was the mad laments of a man who kidnapped a waitress named Arlene, an act in which his crazed mind justified due to the intensity of his love, and took her down to the bottom of a cave, where he marries her before murdering her, all the while, never stopping loving her.
Arlene, I'm sorry for what I've done
I wasn't looking for love till I
saw Your red hair in the sun
What we had could never be love
That was easy to see
But when I saw you at Red's pouring coffee
Something took a hold of me
Arlene, you wouldn't even let me hold your hand
When I stopped you in the road you just screamed and ran
That night I decided I was gonna marry you
My knife went through your screen door
And I went away with you
You were singing "Please let me go"
All the way down to Miller's cave
When I picked a stick up off the ground
You cried "I ain't ready for my grave!"
Oh, Arlene, in the dark your hair's just as red
And this long, dark cave will always be our wedding bed.
The Handsome Family will probably not be playing anywhere near you soon, but with the help of modern technology, you can listen to the duo of Brett and Rennie Sparks do what they do best - weave sparse gotchic-country music landscapes dripping in the sorrow of classic Nashville Country, primitive gospel sorrow ballads, and clever lyrics. Wife Rennie writes the lyrics and husband Brett delivers them in a down-home barritone that shakes you to the root of your cerebral cortex, that is, if you've got one. He sounds like Edgar Allen Poe has been unleashed as Johnny Cash for the new millenium.
That the Handsome Family are not a national treasure playing gigs at Carnegie Hall is a national embarrassment. They offer the kind of darkly ironic blues through astute observation and willingness to just plain wail out at the madness of this world seldom seen in music of today, or yore for that matter.
The Handsome Family make brilliant art and music, and you need to know about them. That is why I wrote this.
Links to the Handsome Family on the web:
The Handsome Family Home Page
The Handsome Family on Myspace
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