LOOKBACK MACHiNE: Handsome Family

ROUTES & BRANCHES

featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music

August 12, 2026

Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

Handsome Family have only become odder the more they have played it straight. Brett and Rennie Sparks have remained true to their outsider vision, even when their "Far From Any Road" became one of popular music's most unlikely hits as the theme song for the opening season of True Detective in 2014. While Brett's sturdy, sober delivery makes any Handsome Family song immediately recognizable, Rennie's lyrics make them exceptional. Dark, hallucinatory, concerning. Answering the question of how it might sound if the Brothers Grimm were products of our own age, turning to roots music rather than written fables. 

"Far From Any Road" aside, Handsome Family have never been embraced by the mainstream of our kind of music, though any playlist of gothic americana would be incomplete without their contribution. The Sparks have pre-announced a Spring 2027 tour, which kindles hope for their first new stuff in a couple years. We would make a case for In the Air, Singing Bones, and Last Days Of Wonder as the height of Handsome Family's dark arts, even as more recent projects continue to sound great. 

We include here a few covers, including the duo's take on a Bottle Rockets tune, and another reinterpreting Wilco's "Capitol City". Both Smothered and Covered and Scattered offer some strong trad work, as well as their requisite run through Dylan's catalogue. But Handsome Family succeed on their own terms, checking the novelty box simply by following their own bent, sincere muse. 

 

HANDSOME FAMiLY: thirty favorites

- "Arlene" Odessa  (1995)

- "Everything That Rises Must Converge" 

- "Drunk By Noon" Milk & Scissors  (1996)

- "Lake Geneva"

- "Weightless Again" Through the Trees  (1998)

- "My Sister's Tiny Hands"

- "Stalled"

- "Giant Of Illinois"

- "So Much Wine" In the Air  (2000)

- "Don't Be Scared" 

- "All the TVs In Town"

- "Cold Cold Cold"

- "Natalie Wood" Smothered and Covered  (2002)

- "24-Hour Store" Singing Bones  (2003)

- "Bottomless Hole"

- "Far From Any Road"

- "Fallen Peaches"

- "Your Great Journey" Last Days Of Wonder  (2006)

- "Flapping Your Broken Wings" 

- "Little Sparrows" Honey Moon  (2009)

- "A Thousand Diamond Rings"

- "Drinking Beer On the Road" Scattered  (2010)

- "Caterpillars" Wilderness  (2013)

- "1000 Dollar Car" While No One Was Looking: Toasting 20 Years Of Bloodshot Records  (2014)

- "Gold" Unseen  (2016)

- "Back In My Day" 

- "Capitol City" single  (2019)

- "Joseph" Hollow  (2023)

- "King Of Everything" 

- "To the Oaks" 

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To enjoy any Spotify ROUTES-cast, just open Spotify and search for "routesandbranches" to access this most recent playlist, as well as many others from past months.  Or click here for a preview:

IF YOU ONLY LiSTEN to ONE RECORD THiS WEEK (August 11, 2026)

ROUTES & BRANCHES

featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music

August 11, 2026

Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

IF YOU ONLY LiSTEN to ONE RECORD THiS WEEK

NYC songwriter/guitarist Margaret Glaspy has ranged across a good amount of stylistic territory for an artist who has just released their fourth full-length. Glaspy's aptly-titled Emotions and Math (2016) introduced her as a confident performer, a purveyor of songs with teeth and sophistication. While 2020's Devotion has been dismissed as Glaspy's foray into synth-pop, the project is successful in its ability to package her songs in a more major key, in addition to acknowledging her diverse vocal ability. Co-produced by partner Julian Lage, Echo the Diamond (2023) brought back Glaspy's electric guitar, and delivered some of her edgiest sounds to date. An EP of covers, last year's Golden Heart Protector spoke to some of her stylistic influences, from Wilco to Lucinda. Margaret Glaspy's new I Am Both (ATO) positions itself smartly at the intersection of these varied expressions. 

For her new sessions, Glaspy turned to Joe Henry for production. A veteran singer-songwriter, Henry has earned a reputation for his austere economy of sound, both as a producer and a performer. For I Am Both, he brings some frequent collaborators to support Glaspy, including drummer Jay Bellerose, Patrick Warren on keys, and bassist Ross Gallagher. The result is a first-take immediacy, an artfully light touch that belies the teeth of Margaret Glaspy's lyrics. While she has always tended towards more skeletal arrangements, these new sessions are almost entirely acoustic, presenting the songs in as close to folk settings as we've heard from Glaspy. The singer opts for a conversational sung/spoken delivery for songs like the title track and "I Thought She Was a Song". 

Many of the pieces on I Am Both highlight the practice of carrying contradiction, both in terms of identity and in our interpersonal connections. One of the record's rare electric guitar sightings, "Petty" begins, Can't you read my mind / I thought telepathy was a requirement for love. "James and Marie" is a sketch of a relationship set to a drum shuffle. Glaspy observes, She once thought he was a god / Now he's a boy that's flowed. The narrator of "I Thought She Was a Song" recalls their admiration for a free-spirited high school classmate. Glaspy has spoken of taking a reset approach to her writing, resulting in a consistent sophistication and thoughtfulness that is by turns artful and direct. 

Like Anna Tivel or Tamara Lindeman of Weather Station, Margaret Glaspy exercises a keen eye for moments in time that speak to a more abiding truth. On the album watermark, "Michigan", she asks, You said you didn't need me / Well who's standing in whose driveway.  The song plays like a familiar Greenwich folk number. Among the collection's fullest cuts, "That Rose" finds Glaspy exercising her poetic pen: I dreamt you looked into the clouds like they were my eyes / You made them blush - the clouds got shy / And made a red sky. She addresses the value in simply showing up on "Reminder": Doing nothing is something I do too well. 

Working with Joe Henry to retool her sound has served to bring her vocal and lyrical gifts to the forefront. Always a skilled if restrained guitarist, Glaspy's instrumental gifts are complimented as well, especially in light of Bellerose's expressive percussion. I Am Both is quite a percussive record, in terms of vocal flow and guitar. Margaret Glaspy's exercise in restraint actually speaks to her boldness and artistic courage, her singing both fragile and confidently wielded. On the title cut, her spoken/sung recitation echoes Gil Scott-Heron: He said I lived too close to the train tracks / Well if you ask me I'm just a little too far back / I like a little whistle in my life. 

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ROUTES-cast August 9, 2026

ROUTES & BRANCHES

featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music

August 9, 2026

Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

ROUTES-cast August 9, 2026

^ Mama's Broke, "Old-Fashioned Love Song" Reunion  (Free Dirt, Aug 28)

- Ocie Elliott, "Her Eyes Dart Round" Felice County Fair (Celebration Of the Felice Brothers)  (Sony, Oct 16)

- Low Gap, "Amtrak Train" single  (Cloverdale, 26)

- Bonnie Prince Billy, "London May (Live In the City Of Ghosts)" Ghosts Of American Psychonauts  (No Quarter, Sep 18)  D

- Muireann Bradley, "True Love Will Find You In the End" Blackwood Pew EP  (Verve, Oct 23)  D

- Riley Downing, "Helen & Gene" Landfill Poetry  (Oh Boy, Aug 28)

- Kacy Lee Anderson, "Giving In" Hello I'm Irrelevant  (Earth Libraries, Oct 23)  D

- Palmyra, "Pick Me Up" Cheap Beer EP  (Oh Boy, Sep 18)

- Margo Cilker, "Little White Cross" Little White Cross  (Fossil, Oct 9)  D

- Sierra Ferrell, "Trying To Love You" single  (Rounder, 26)  D

- Sam Burton, "I'm a Stranger" Fairweather Friend  (Captured Tracks, Oct 29)  D

- Silverada, "Second Hand" Living Proof  (Edgewater, 26)

- Star Room Boys, "Why Do Lonely Men and Women Break Each Other's Hearts" Why Do Lonely Men and Women Break Each Other's Hearts  (Strolling Bones, Sep 25)  D

- Shaun Couture, "Scratch Off Ticket" single  (General Store, 26)  D

- Futurebirds, "Pretty Eyes" Far Out Country  (Dualtone, Sep 4)

- Left Arm Tan, "Rolling Under the Stars" When Tigers Smoked  (LAT, Oct 9)  D

- Steve Earle & Los Lobos, "Volver a Celaya" single  (New West, 26)  D

- Tre Burt, "Hold Me Slowly Till I Float" single  (Oh Boy, 26)  D

- Lucy Dacus, "Clay Pigeons" Sittin' With Blaze: Tribute To Blaze Foley  (Lost Art, 26)

- Danielle Ponder, "Sun and Moon" Everything Has Changed  (Dead Oceans, Oct 9)  D

- Margaret Glaspy, "Reminder" I Am Both  (ATO, 26)

- Deloyd Elze, "Drive Like I Never Been Hurt" Nellene (Extended)  (Concord, 26)  D

- This Is Lorelei, "Oh No Now My" Singer In My Band  (Matador, Sep 11)  

- Fort Frances, "Parliament Lights" Fort Frances EP  (Roadblock, 26)  D

- Hollow Hand, "Heavy Metal T-Shirt" Wish Road South  (Loose, Sep 4)

- Lake Street Dive, "You're Never Around" single  (Dive Not Drive, 26)  D

- Alabama Shakes, "Garden" I Must Be Dreaming  (Island, Aug 28)  

- Westside Cowboy, "Dobro" It Goes On  (Island, Aug 21)  D

- Way Dynamic, "Officially" Massive Shoe (Reissue)  (Jagjaguwar, Oct 2)

- @, "Punish My Mind" Autosmile  (4AD, Oct 15)  D

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To enjoy any Spotify ROUTES-cast, just open Spotify and search for "routesandbranches" to access this most recent playlist, as well as many others from past months.  Or click here for a preview:

WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT THiS WEEK?!! (August 7, 2026)

ROUTES & BRANCHES

featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music

August 7, 2026

Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT THiS WEEK?!!

As we've stated, there is no shortage of good new singles on an average week. We can disappear down a deep dark hole mining for just the right songs. We also appreciate a fun video, though we have absolutely none of those this week. Good stuff, though, so just close your eyes and make up your own visuals. 

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Futurebirds, "Pretty Eyes" Far Out Country  (Dualtone, Sep 4)

All of the sudden Futurebirds strike gold. At this point we've heard about half of their forthcoming double LP, Far Out Country, and it's been fine. Over the years we've had no problem representing their slightly sticky alt.country to our playlists, but nothing has hit like this pretty, simple ballad: We're gonna learn to fight it, like it or not / So come on give in to me, dust to divinity. 

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Left Arm Tan, "Rolling Under the Stars" When Tigers Smoked  (LAT, Oct 9)

There's a great story behind Left Arm Tan's return, and we're hoping they'll tell it as the release date approaches. For now, we're happy to share the initial single from When Tigers Smoked. So much to like here, from the insistent low-end pulse to the watercolored pedal steel, and those border-adjacent horns. While we wait for more, we'd recommend you all listen to the band's superb three-album run from 2013-2018: Alticana, Lorene, El Camino ...

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Kacy Lee Anderson, "Giving In" Hello I'm Irrelevant  (Earth Libraries, Oct 23)

Known for her work as one-half of Kacy & Clayton, Canada's Kacy Lee Anderson returns with one of the best LP titles of the year. Where her duo tended towards trad and pastoral, this debut single offers a more updated profile. From her publicity: she's writing the songs she wants to hear, whether anyone else cares or not. Not always the most advisable move, it seems to be working just fine here. 

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Odyssey Cult, Vol 3  (Silver Current, Aug 21)

Here is the only song we've ever represented that has been likened to Lemmy-era Hawkwind. The project of guitarist Ethan Miller, there is certainly a heavy-osity to this one. The evolving outfit's third project includes contributions from an impressively diverse range of friends, from legendary drummer Steve Shelley and squaky sax-player Zoh Amba to long-lost vocalist Paula Frazer. 

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Margo Cilker, "Little White Crosses" Little White Crosses  (Fossil, Oct 9)

The Washington State songwriter turned to Bruce Robison to co-produce her third full-length, following Pohorylle and Valley Of Heart's Delight. Comments Cilker, You could definitely call it a concept record. If that concept is that I got really sad and went to Texas. "Little White Crosses" covers a 2022 song by Christy Hays, a writer who also deserves to be discovered (have you heard "Don't Let Me Die In California"?). 

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A ROUTES & BRANCHES GUiDE to FEEDiNG YOUR MONSTER (August 6, 2026)

A ROUTES & BRANCHES GUiDE to FEEDiNG YOUR MONSTER

good news about good noise

August 6, 2026

Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

Here's where we provide readers with a quick and incomplete survey of some of the more engaging stories and sights we've collected this week during our regular jaunts across the 'net. While we strive to populate our own site with as much original content as possible, we're eternally grateful for our fellow bloggers, many of whom are listen among our Good Place To Start links. One of our favorite stops has been Brooklyn Vegan, especially valuable for information regarding new singles. Unfortunately, BV was effectively gutted this week, the operation seemingly shuttered by the site's parent group. With other conglomerators crouching behind a paywall or shutting down altogether, the voices of independent music writers are increasingly valuable. 

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^ Sam & Louise Sullivan perform under one of the least sexy names in all of popular music. Perhaps this is not a surprise, their excellent new Love & Devotion project recorded by a pair of Quaker school teachers from Philadelphia. We hope Stereogum's recent interview hasn't disappeared behind a paywall, but give it a try anyway. 

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Wow. Has it really been since 2019 that we were gifted a new LP from Pieta Brown? We share Twangville's enthusiasm about Dreamin' Of, due later this month. The singer-songwriter spills the details in an interview addressing borrowing her mother-in-law Iris Dement's touring van. And more. 

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Jon Spencer has been an essential force in the continuing fight to land the sound of punk-blues music in every garage in the country. He speaks freely to Retrofuturista on the heels of June's Songs Of Personal Loss and Protest, holding court about overwhelming municipal sewers, the importance of Little Richard in light of the current administration, and Devo's great drummer. 

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We fell in love with Mary In the Junkyard's recent debut, Role Model Hermit. DIY offers a nice interview with the trio, who liken the process of readying their project to giving birth to a horse. 

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As we celebrate the one-year anniversary of Racing Mount Pleasant's self-titled debut, the outfit visits KEXP for a wonderful thirty-minute set. They've brought along a violin, a sax, and a pocketful of ambitious progressive folk. 

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While we're enjoying some video content, Paste has cornered Case Oats for a short acoustic set during Wilco's Solid Sound festival. 

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We'll be featuring a new single from This Is Lorelei's forthcoming album very soon. As an apertif, please enjoy this week's long-form interview with the project's ringleader, Nate Amos. Also a member of Water From Your Eyes, the indie rock rascal (their words) chats about growing up the son of bluegrass legend Bob Amos, being banned from Distrokid for uploading too many epic drone dirges, and mainlining Blink 182's All the Small Things on repeat. 

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NYT Popcast offers a nice, long conversation with Conor Oberst, who has been creating music in one form or another since his mid-teens. 

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The talented members of the talented trio, Magic Tuber Stringband wander through the extensive library of Thrill Jockey Records to pull and share some of their favorite and most influential albums from their archives. Thank goodness they are talented, since Magic Tuber Stringband is a phenomenally bad name for a music act. 

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A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster is our way of keeping track of all the year's new and forthcoming releases. This week we added news of Down & Dirty, the down & dirty new LP from David Quinn, awaiting an August 28 street date. Valerie June has announced the pending arrival of Brighter Blue, a new EP courtesy of the Concord label (Sep 11). We're looking forward to hearing some live stuff from Bonnie Prince Billy. No Quarter will release Ghosts Of American Psychonauts come September 18. Ian Noe has (finally) set a date for his long (long)-awaited new record. Canyon Falls Trailer Band will appear wherever music matters on September 25 (Leo13). Finally, Kacy Lee Anderson (one-half of Kacy & Clayton) is looking to October 23 for the unleashing of a solo project, Hello I'm Irrelevant via Earth Libraries. 

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LOOKBACK MACHiNE: Mojave 3

ROUTES & BRANCHES

featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music

August 5, 2026

Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

As declared on yesterday's post, this week's Lookback playlist observes the 4AD label's release of remastered editions of Mojave 3's five-LP oeuvre, creatively titled Mojave 3 (1995-2006). While Neil Halstead, Rachel Goswell and Ian McCutcheon served as a marginal note in our kind of music, it's worth your indulgence. Listeners might recognize notes of more familiar artists like Iron & Wine, Horse Feathers, or Beachwood Sparks/GospelbeacH, though the recordings of Mojave 3 are set apart in light of Halstead's distinctly British sensibility. Tangential links might also be drawn to earlier work from Cowboy Junkies and even Jayhawks. 

What with our always-forward orientation, it's been too long since we spent time with the songs of Mojave 3. Previewing our playlist served to remind us how relevant this stuff remains, how Halstead's artistic formula has proven visionary if not underappreciated. 

MOJAVE 3: thirty favorites

- "Love Songs On the Radio" Ask Me Tomorrow (1995)

- "Sarah"

- "Tomorrow's Taken"

- "You're Beautiful"

- "This Road I'm Traveling" single (1998)

- "Between Us" single (1998)

- "Go Lady Go" single (1998)

- "All I Want" single (1998)

- "Who Do You Love"  Out Of Tune (1998)

- "Give What You Take" 

- "Some Kinda Angel"

- "To Whom Should I Write"

- "In Love With a View"  Excuses For Travellers (2000)

- "Trying To Reach You"

- "My Life In Art"

- "Any Day Will Be Fine"

- "Prayer For the Paranoid"

- "Bringin' Me Home"

- "Girl From the North Country" single (2000)

- "Bluebird Of Happiness" Spoon and Rafter (2003)

- "Starlite #1"

- "Tinkers Blues"

- "She's All Up Above"

- "Too Many Mornings"

- "Between the Bars"

- "Star In the Sky" single (2006)

- "Truck Driving Man" Puzzles Like You (2006)

- "Breaking the Ice"

- "Big Star Baby"

- "The Mutineer" 

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To enjoy any Spotify ROUTES-cast, just open Spotify and search for "routesandbranches" to access this most recent playlist, as well as many others from past months.  Or click here for a preview:

IF YOU ONLY LiSTEN to ONE RECORD THiS WEEK (August 4, 2026)

ROUTES & BRANCHES

featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music

August 4, 2026

Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

Back atop the proverbial horse after our week of wayfaring. Fortunately, it hasn't been an especially eventful time for new stuff (though it's our contention that there's always new music if you know where to look). 

Our Tuesday posts are dedicated to celebrating just one record from this constant stream of novelty, knowing that it requires work to keep up with what's new. 

IF YOU ONLY LiSTEN to ONE RECORD THiS WEEK

This week we're going to direct your valuable attention back to the late 90s and 00s, when Mojave 3 grew out of the dissolution of Slowdive. Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell (with an evolving cohort including drummer Ian McCutcheon) projected Slowdive's shoegaze forward, opening the hazy buzz to emphasize elements of folk, country, and pop. Over the span of their five (5) records, that evolution included regular use of pedal steel, which occasionally lent Mojave 3's music a subtly rural air. 

The legendary 4AD label has remastered and reissued the British band's LPs in a lovely box set (Mojave 3: (1995-2006) that has since sold out, though the records are individually streamable). Mojave 3 was introduced on 1995's Ask Me Tomorrow, a project that dealt in a low-key psychedelic shoegaze, sometimes trading out Slowdive's electric hum for a more acoustic setting. The band's follow-up, 1998's Out Of Tune, found Halstead and Goswell increasingly defining a more distinct, heavier direction, incorporating more pastoral pop influences in addition to keys and electric guitar. Later collections paid greater attention to melody and songcraft, flirting less with with any country influences. 

Beginning in 2002, Neil Halstead began devoting increased time to solo and side projects (2008's Oh! Mighty Engine is especially worth your attention). Following the release of 2006's Puzzles Like You, Mojave 3 declared a hiatus, and an eventual reformation of Slowdive made any further recordings unlikely. 

Our celebration of Mojave 3's reissues will continue on tomorrow's Episode, when we look back at thirty of our favorite songs from the act's relatively short run. 

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