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The Handsome Family

Venue: St Clements Church
Town: Chorlton
Date: 24th May
Website: http://www.handsomefamily.com

The Handsome Family are a hugely entertaining and charismatic live band. They started the set with what I believe to be one of the greatest songs in the contemporary Americana canon. 'Weightless Again' intertwines personal heartbreak and alienation with historical resonances and Moby Dick; never fails to bring a shiver down my spine. They follow this with another audience favourite - 'So Much Wine' - and the chutzpah works; probably their two most famous songs dispensed with they are free to cast their spells in more esoteric directions.

The Handsome Family sends field reports from a parallel universe, different enough from the mundane to beguile but with a verisimilitude and dreamlike familiarity that tells profound truths. They weave gothic country fairy tales with a message: the everyday can be enchanting and the mysteries of life unravel somewhere in their melody. The world is bleak but tender, brutal but kind, dark but funny. At the heart of their vision is gentleness, wisdom and love.

Brett Spark's rich timbre embodies the vision of his wife Rennie; Greil Marcus says hers are "Words that in their everyday surrealism have no parallel in contemporary writing." Today we are treated to new work about Mary Sweeney, window smasher and the neurological peculiarities of octopuses as well as older songs such as 'The Giant of Illinois', 'My Sisters Tiny Hands', 'The Loneliness of Magnets' and 'Cathedrals'.

The latter was particularly apt as the venue was St Clements Church in Chorlton. The band looked at home in the setting but I was reminded about how gigs are as much about the audience and the venue as the music. The arts festival crowd were lovely and polite but the acoustics were disappointing and there was a sense many were ticking a box to say they had been there. In contrast a few days later I saw The Handsome Family play to an enraptured throng at the 100 Club; a place more used to this kind of thing and where the band basked in, and reflected, a passionate and visceral reception. London saw three encores, including a solo performance by Brett of "The Little Dutch Boy"; a reminder of the treasure trove of songs in their archive.

Back to Manchester and another highlight for me was a rendition of 'The Knoxville Girl' played by request and thus subject to onstage debate about its romantic inclinations. The Handsome Family's between song banter is consistently as entertaining as their songs; indeed they wear their depths so lightly it is easy to forget how well crafted the music is. They may rarely deviate far from their twisted Appalachian trail but their sound has evolved through years of touring. The ramshackle charm of early performances still echoes but the erratic drum machine has been replaced by a warmer human sound, and Rennie brings beautiful harmonies into play along with her banjo and "the world's smallest bass".

The result is gorgeous and approaching perfection. Spellbinding, unique and strangely moving; I urge you to go and see them wherever they may be playing near you.

Morag Rose