Search - Handsome Family :: Wilderness

Enter the dark forest of The Handsome Family and let the beautiful branches surround you. Wild animals, tall tales, and dark stories from American history populate the lyrics of Wilderness. In lyricist Rennie Sparks' hands the wonders of nature are intertwined with true stories of Stephen Foster's death in a Bowery flophouse, General Custer's shiny boots as he lay dead on a Montana prairie, and the capture of Mary Sweeney, the Wisconsin Window Smasher of 1896. There are tall tales of the octopus's hypnotic sea-dance, the frenzied mayhem of a town afflicted by a golden lizard's bite, and an enormous mansion full of screeching owls. Appalachian holler, psychedelic rock, tin pan alley, and medieval ballads continue to inform The Handsome Family's unique brand of Americana, while an affinity for parlor ballads and clawhammer banjo has crept in with Wilderness. This is haunting music in the most wonderful way-brilliant, emotionally-charged and completely unique.