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.
The Bottomless Hole
The Handsome Family Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I had a wife and children, good tires on my car
What took me from my home and put me in the earth
Was the mouth of a deep, dark hole I found behind my barn
We'd been filling it with garbage as long as you could count
Kitchen scraps and dead cows, tractors broken down
But never did I hear one thing hit the ground
I went out behind the barn and stared down in that hole
Late into the evening my mind would not let go
So I got out my ropes and a rusty claw-foot tub
And I rigged myself a chariot to ride down in that hole
My wife, she did help me, she fed me down the ropes
And then I sank away from the surface of this world
With the last rope pulled tight, I had not reached the end
And in anger I swung there, down in that dark abyss
So I got out my knife, I told my wife goodbye
I cut loose from the ropes and fell on down that hole
And still I am there falling down in this evil pit
But until I hit the bottom, I won't believe it's bottomless
The Handsome Family's song The Bottomless Hole tells the story of a man from Ohio who discovers a mysterious and seemingly bottomless hole behind his barn. The lyrics suggest that the man becomes obsessed with the hole, spending late evenings staring into it and eventually rigging a contraption to ride down into its depths. Despite his efforts, however, the man never reaches the bottom of the hole and is left falling endlessly into its dark abyss.
The song's lyrics are intriguing because they leave many questions unanswered. Who is the man telling the story? What led him to become so fixated on the hole? And what, if anything, does the hole represent?
One possible interpretation of the song is that the hole symbolizes the unknown and the unexplored. The man's attempts to go deeper and deeper into the hole may represent humanity's eternal quest for knowledge and understanding, even when it seems like we are never truly able to reach the "bottom" of existence.
Line by Line Meaning
My name I don't remember, though, I hail from Ohio
The singer is a forgettable man from Ohio.
I had a wife and children, good tires on my car
He had a family and a reliable car.
What took me from my home and put me in the earth
The reason he ended up buried was unknown.
Was the mouth of a deep, dark hole I found behind my barn
He found a mysterious hole behind his barn.
We'd been filling it with garbage as long as you could count
Garbage had been dumped in the hole for a long time.
Kitchen scraps and dead cows, tractors broken down
Various types of waste had been discarded in the hole.
But never did I hear one thing hit the ground
He didn't hear any sounds when things were thrown down the hole.
And slowly I came to fear that this was a bottomless hole
He began to suspect that the hole didn't have a bottom.
I went out behind the barn and stared down in that hole
He inspected the hole more closely.
Late into the evening my mind would not let go
He couldn't stop thinking about the hole.
So I got out my ropes and a rusty claw-foot tub
He decided to investigate the hole himself.
And I rigged myself a chariot to ride down in that hole
He constructed a makeshift rope and pulley system.
My wife, she did help me, she fed me down the ropes
His wife assisted him in lowering himself into the hole.
And then I sank away from the surface of this world
He started descending into the unknown depths of the hole.
With the last rope pulled tight, I had not reached the end
He hadn't hit the bottom of the hole yet.
And in anger I swung there, down in that dark abyss
He became frustrated and angry as he dangled in the darkness.
So I got out my knife, I told my wife goodbye
He made the decision to cut himself loose and continue falling.
I cut loose from the ropes and fell on down that hole
He freed himself from the ropes and continued his descent.
And still I am there falling down in this evil pit
He's still falling and trapped in the hole.
But until I hit the bottom, I won't believe it's bottomless
He refuses to accept that the hole doesn't have a bottom until he reaches it.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: BRETT SPARKS, RENNIE S SPARKS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind