The Handsome Family

Enter the dark forest of The Handsome Family. This is haunting and beautiful music— brilliant, emotionally-charged and totally unique. Maybe you just discovered them (like the 20 million + people who've watched the True Detective opening montage on YouTube)? Maybe you've been following them for the last twenty years? Either way you'll be happy to know that The Handsome Family are far more than just the band that wrote the song, "Far From Any Road" (True Detective's main title theme, season 1).

The Handsome Family is a 20-year songwriting collaboration between New Mexican husband and wife, Brett (music) and Rennie Sparks (words). Their lyrics and music are very intense, highly descriptive and full of meticulously researched narrative and exhilarating musical re-imaginings of everything from Appalachian holler, psychedelic rock, Tin Pan Alley and medieval ballad. You don't have to be a music historian to love these songs. This is music full of romantic longing for nature's mysterious beauty and for the tiny wonders of everyday life. The Handsome Family are noted for pairing sweet melody with sad stories. This is music that makes you shiver and cry, but also makes you happy to be alive.

In September, 2016, the band is set to release its tenth record of new songs. The new record is entitled, "Unseen" and it consists of ten stories that live at the edge of the known world.

"The Handsome Family's greatest gift lies in its tremendous talent for painting vivid, sometimes terrifying pictures with every word." - NPR

http://www.handsomefamily.com/

Anna & Elizabeth

Of Anna & Elizabeth, NPR Music writes: "If you've never thought your tastes would lean to mountain music, take a deep breath and soak it all in."

A collaboration between Anna Roberts-Gevalt and Elizabeth Laprelle, the pair's growing acclaim springs from a shared quartet of talents: Both are historians, storytellers, visual artists, and gifted, intuitive musicians-in combination, a groundbreaking approach.
Inspired by the richness and tradition of the music, Anna & Elizabeth gather songs and stories from archives and visits with elders. They bring these songs to life in performance with sparse, atmospheric arrangements using guitar, banjo, fiddle, and the uncanny blend of their voices in close harmony.

Anna & Elizabeth accompany their songs with stories-of the lyrics, of the singer, of the quest to learn the song - and they illustrate them in mesmerizing fashion with "crankies" - intricate picture-scrolls illustrating the old songs they sing, which they create in tandem with papercuts, shadow puppets, prints, and embroidered fabric.

http://www.annaandelizabeth.com/