THE HANDSOME FAMILY : Through the Trees. Rykodisc/Loose
(****)

One of the abiding images of Russian film-maker Andrey Tarkovsky is of a farmhouse set adrift from the rest of the planet but still littered with historical references through books and art. The Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy of the No Depression movement, Rennie and Brett Sparks a.k.a. The Handsome Family could be imagined well at home in similar clapboard surroundings perched somewhere on top of a Chicago tenement block . Along with the books and art though you'd have to include a variety of plastic animals ( they take them on stage with them!) and a batch of dusty pre-war 78's as well as a good number of post-war C&W LPs. In recent publicity shots the baseball cap and indie clothes of old have been replaced by period costume and a pose suggesting the famous Grant Wood "American Gothic" painting of a couple in front of their homestead. This "gothic" bent is really window-dressing for a band that has more than enough substance without resorting to gimmicks.
Starting out as a trio but losing the drummer along the way the Handsome's first effort on the Carrot Top label "Odessa" was not entirely successful as it tried to sow a quilt out of patches of indie bluster and C&W parody. One notable exception was the Brett penned song "Moving Furniture Around" which surfaced on the recent alt-country "Loose" sampler disc. Whilst the rest of "Odessa" seemed to leave them in the indie second lane this track's successful amalgamation of C&W crooning and indie riffing gave some hint of things to come.
With second disc "Milk and Scissors" accolades started coming their way. The workload was redistributed with Rennie contributing most of the lyrics whilst Texan-born Brett started honing that smooth baritone to convey his partner's impressive songs. From the opening track "Lake Geneva" intellectual sharpness and musical eclecticism from a duo steeped in folklore and classical music ( Brett has done post-graduate work on a Flemish medieval composer) combines with an awareness of contemporary literature that starts seeping out. Rennieís lyrics depict a landscape of Wal-Mart and Camel cigarettes straight out of "dirty realism" with a skewed sensibility that leans toward "magic realism." With second track "Winebago Skeletons" they almost invent a whole new genre of "Fairy-Tale Country Musicí" with lines like "burnt out cars on my fingers" and "skeletons beneath this bankrupt town". The country licks skitter across the remnants of a Pavement-like indie beat. Other standouts include "Drunk by Noon," a hymn to drinking with echoes of The Carter Family. Then with "The House Carpenter" they mine back into pre-war folk territory as they investigate the area Harry Smith covered in his Anthology of American Music. They go beyond mere revivalism though on a couple of marvellously skewed takes on history/biography in "Emily Shore 1819-1839" and the wonderfully titled "Amelia Earheart vs the Dancing Bear." Confirming the new direction, as they abandon indie precursors, Brett nails the parody/straight C&W dichotomy with a beautifully heartfelt rendition of his sole lyric contribution "#1 Country Song" which brings to mind Lefty Frizzell as much as Beck's postmodernist slant. You can almost imagine the members of the Family sneaking down to a dusty basement full of historic ballads and then dragging them back up the tenement stairs.
Which brings us to this their third and most consistent outing to date. "Through the Trees" has already received plaudits from a wide range of critics and not only in the alt-country field suggesting that they fit easily onto the end of a lineage that includes Will Oldham/ Nick Cave/Gillian Welch and Freakwater. Plastic animals and fake 19th century garb not withstanding their work does not deserve to be bracketed as "quirky" with They Might be Giants etc but instead recognised for its song-writing strength. Original "4th member" and producer Dave Triumfo works wonders with soundscapes assembled from an array of eclectic instrumentation and it is hard to believe that parts of these tracks were recorded in the Sparkís flat! A Wilco connection appears with the participation of Jeff Tweedy who adds backing vocal and guitar fills on some tracks. He has had a part in two of the most enterprising revamps of the folk/country inheritance this year as he also proves invaluable on the equally intriguing "Mermaid Avenue" Guthrie meets Bragg disc. "Through the Trees" firmly establishes the Sparks as major writers in the left-field indie/country area. They've set out like pioneers from the known map of Alt-Country and seem willing to mix contemporary realism with an almost primitive pilgrim hymnal. Their work resonates with a fear of "urban" wilderness that leaks through the lyrics sense of displacement in much the same way the original settlers sang hymns against the "wilderness" beyond the stockade. They carry hints of Appalachian ballads (they've covered Barbara Allen) , old-time music and 1940's and 50's country ballads mixed up with nursery rhymes (Benjamin Franklin) and even the Witch Rhymes of New England. The modern world is an unsettling place to be and they bring out a pre-electricity irrationality in the Chicago of today. "The Woman Downstairs" holds echoes of a thousand displaced musics - immigrant and emigrant and internal drifters -with its haunting tuba. Characters fall through the net of their tenement never to be seen again like ghosts of a Carver short story whilst the cityscape becomes as frightening as that rural Eden that welcomed the pilgrims with nothing but rocks and snakes. Rennie's lyric feel catches some of that bewilderment with an almost prosaic exactitude - "she left it on the dryer, she died in June--her boyfriend went back to New York..." It as if workaday fears that infuse the old ballads had been updated to a contemporary setting. There are few lyricists working in this fine and oblique a way and she deserves praise for a new angle when the amount of literate but essentially dry autobiographical and confessional writing grows every day. Brett Sparks adds the musical lens that it can shine through. Equal to her lyrical ability is the step up he has taken in his vocal delivery. Texan-born he is reminiscent of the great Tex Ritter ( another explorer of the folk heritage) who has produced tracks as strange and off-kilter as anything the Handsome's produce here. Murder ballads and strange old-time songster material certainly fuel these songs but they are largely successful in avoiding the veneration and archival approach that spoils so much "revival" folk both here and in the States. Note for note sometimes means "spirit" missed and no one could deny the atmosphere they conjure up but they must be careful of sliding into the kind of "gothic" parody that has affected Mr.Cave. A song like "Down in the Valley of Hollow Logs" whilst reverberating with the old-time references still manages to be as sharp lyrically as those Gaelic abortion songs that the smooth world of "Celtic" music seems to have ironed out. To me the power of their work lies in their ability to absorb and honour the folk sources without losing it in folk "mist." Rennie's imagistic pen is sharp as a needle and on the affecting "My Ghost" she deals with her husbandís malaise and stay in a hospital ward as realistically as a contemporary poet like Sharon Olds.
Finally, here's a quick overview of the tracks on this stunning work. "Down in the Ground" starts with hammer beat then picked banjo and fiddle backs up a truly startling vocal performance from Rennie where she sounds a hundred years old and brings to mind Sarah Ogun Gunning.. Lyrically we're firmly in that candle-lit world of 'field-snakes eating a mouse". First track "Weightless Again" is pulled along by a beautiful melody as we encounter Indians carrying fire and Moby Dick - "moon and June" territory this aint! "My Sister's Tiny Hands" has a Weslyan Hymnal feel. "Stalled" is a perfect vignette with twangy C&W backing. " I Fell" contains wonderful images of ice, fire and even a bleached horse's skull spilling orange lizards whilst "Where the Birch Trees Lean" is almost a children's song, or an out-take from "Oklahoma" as it weaves a "new" folk death ballad to rest alongside "Knoxville Girl." "Cathedrals" sees Brett in Tex Ritter territory again and Rennie using a favourite lyric device of undercutting a romantic image (The Cathedral, Cologne) with a bit of stark realism - "there's a fibreglass castle in Wisconsin". "The Giant of Illinois" explores "Fairy-Tale Country" with Brothers Grimm violence as a swan is stoned to death. "Bury Me Here" is self explanatory- "with the spiders and fish". To end through some lines from Brett's sole lyrical contribution again and as with "Milk & Scissors" it's a good one. "Last Night I Went Out Walking" starts off almost like Bruce Springsteen in its depiction of a lone figure drifting on the edge of town by a river but the melancholy tone sinks deeper as a organ and single notes fall away to a deathly hush. It could have been written 200 years ago or yesterday and therein lies this group's brilliance. A beautiful record etched with a quill pen.

I want to run and tell you the thoughts that are in my head,
But I don't think that you'd believe a single word I said,
The river's water runs so cold, it calms my burning skin,
It takes away my aching thoughts and cleanses all my sins

Shaun Belcher