Their seventh CD, Last Days of Wonder (June. 2006) was one of Mojo’s top ten American Albums for 2006 and called “an unqualified triumph” by Uncut. Of their sixth CD, Singing Bones, The UK’s Independent wrote, “Rarely, even in the fatalistic world of country music, has the precarious mystery of mortality been captured with such poetic grace as on Singing Bones.”
They have appeared in the movie, I’m Your Man (2005), a tribute to Leonard Cohen as well as Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus (2004). In 2004, a reader's poll in Mojo named The Handsome Family's third CD, Through the Trees one of the ten essential Americana records.
Last Days of Wonder is a collection of love songs sung in airports, garbage dumps, drive-thru windows and shark-infested waters. The CD celebrates the little miraculous moments of beauty found in everyday life: a golf course shining in the rain, hanging lights bouncing in the breeze, pigeons singing from billboards, trees blooming in squares of dirt. The songs linger on those moments when we’re pulled from the ordinary to feel awed by mystery, bewildered by beauty, terrified by the vast unknowable around us (whether we wander through shady groves or crowded parking lots).
Brett Sparks, who writes the music, draws from medieval melody, country-politan string arrangements, tin-pan alley crooners, and dusty hillbilly records to weave together the fabric of this record. Rennie Sparks, who writes the lyrics, makes magical realism from polar adventure stories, pagan hunting songs and her own time spent (like most people) riding up elevators, staring out hotel room windows, and driving interstate highways. The entire album was recorded over a year's time in the converted garage studio at the back of the Sparks' Albuquerque house. Brett recorded it all on a Mac and a whole mess of wires, microphones and little metal boxes. Alongside the usual guitar, bass and drums you will hear mellotrons, ukulele, banjo, bowed wine glasses, and trombone.
Brett and Rennie (The Handsome Family) have been married for 18 years. In their live performances The Handsome Family are sometimes up to a six-piece band and sometimes just Brett and Rennie with (or without) a laptop computer.
King of Dust
The Handsome Family Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
But I woke up in the bar ditch, car ready to explode
Hanging upside down in the front seat of my truck
The scream of grinding metal, 40 cars piling up
Nothing rusts in the desert, the air is full of ghosts
Cliffs painted with the old gods, rabbitbrush full of bones
Oh, Coronado, king of dust
The desert never cared what you saw
When you stared into the sun
Ancient oceans have been lost beneath this shifting clay
Where conquistadors in silver hunted Cibola across the plains
But there are no golden cities
Only trailer parks and dust
And angels only fly here
When you drive into the sun
Nothing rusts in the desert, the air is full of ghosts
Cliffs painted with the old gods, rabbit brush full of bones
Oh, Coronado, king of dust
The desert never cared what you saw
When you stared into the sun
The lyrics of the song "King of Dust" by The Handsome Family depicts a journey into the desert and how the beauty of nature intertwined with gloom and destruction. In the first verse, the singer envisions himself flying above the "glittering world" to only wake up in a "bar ditch" with his "car ready to explode". The second verse introduces a car crash where "40 cars piling up" with the singer found "hanging upside down in the front seat of [his] truck". The chorus introduces the title of the song and the mention of Coronado, a Spanish explorer who ventured into the American Southwest in search of treasure. The lyrics hint at the irony of this venture in that the desert never cared for what he saw when he "stared into the sun".
The third and fourth verses depict the unyielding nature of the desert, how it has remained unchanged and how it refuses to give away its secrets. The singer mentions the presence of ghosts in the air, noting that "nothing rusts in the desert" and how "rabbit brush [is] full of bones". The song ends with the singer acknowledging the futility of the pursuit of treasure in the desert, the area is now just filled with "trailer parks and dust". Angels "only fly here when you drive into the sun". It's a bleak depiction of the desert- a symbol of both beauty and destruction.
Line by Line Meaning
I dreamed that I was flying above the glittering world
I had a dream that I was soaring above a magnificent world.
But I woke up in the bar ditch, car ready to explode
But when I woke up, I was in a car wrecked and on the verge of exploding.
Hanging upside down in the front seat of my truck
I was hanging upside down in the front seat of my truck.
The scream of grinding metal, 40 cars piling up
Amidst the grinding metal and 40 cars crushed, there were screams.
Nothing rusts in the desert, the air is full of ghosts
In the desert, nothing decays, and the air is rife with the spirits of the deceased.
Cliffs painted with the old gods, rabbitbrush full of bones
The cliffs have been decorated with images of ancient gods, and rabbitbrush is intertwined with bones.
Oh, Coronado, king of dust
Oh, Coronado, the golden symbol of desert's futility.
The desert never cared what you saw
The desert doesn't care for what you think you see.
When you stared into the sun
When you gazed at the sun.
Ancient oceans have been lost beneath this shifting clay
This changing soil has buried ancient oceans.
Where conquistadors in silver hunted Cibola across the plains
Where explorers clad in silver searched for the fabled city of Cibola across the plains.
But there are no golden cities
Yet, there are no such golden cities.
Only trailer parks and dust
Only trailer parks and dust can be found here.
And angels only fly here
And only angels come here to fly.
When you drive into the sun
When you drive towards the scorching sun.
Writer(s): Brett Sparks, Rennie Sparks
Contributed by Xavier M. Suggest a correction in the comments below.