When: 7pm on Saturday 30 May 2026
Where: The Stoller Hall, Hunts Bank, Manchester M3 1DA

We’re delighted to welcome The Handsome Family back to the Stoller Hall!

The Handsome Family today announce a UK and Irish tour to mark the re-release of their classic album Singing Bones. The album was the sixth album from the husband and wife outfit of Brett and Rennie Sparks and was the first record from the band since moving away from the midwestern alternative country scene of Chicago, Illinois to the desert southwest of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Here their songs became infused with the desert sun and crawling reptiles. Mariachi and Morricone – Western Gothic, if you will. The record was released in 2003.

Ten years later, the desert mystery Far From Any Road was used as the theme for HBO’S True Detective. The song became a worldwide hit. Now for the first time, it will be released on vinyl and deluxe CD, with bonus material.

Rennie Sparks says of that time:

‘It was a hot July afternoon in 2001 when the fire ants attacked me. I walked right over an anthill on my way to trim the cacti. The ants quickly swarmed my leg and began biting viciously again and again. I spent the rest of the day on the couch moaning in pain. Deep within the agony I heard a high pitched sound. I heard the ant queen calling to me from out beneath the driveway. I got up and wrote the lyrics to Far From Any Road. The ant queen’s magic is in every word of every song on this record. She is the hole, the ghost, the wild wind and the fallen peaches. How else can I explain that Singing Bones is still alive and well at 23.’

Since its release, Far From Any Road has accumulated more than 45 million YouTube views and 153 million Spotify streams – a clear testimony to its huge cultural reach and lasting impact.

‘Faulkneresque gothic from the haunting but charming Brett & Rennie Sparks’ – the Guardian

‘Singing Bones is a masterpiece of modern American Gothic’ – The Independent

Tour support comes from Danny George Wilson. Danny George Wilson’s formidable credentials go back to his days in seminal UK roots rock band Grand Drive with brother Julian, a solo album released on Paris-based tastemaker label Fargo Records and six albums of consistently high calibre output on Loose Music with the revolving cast of his Danny & The Champions of the World incarnation. In 2016 the Champs swept the boards at the inaugural UK Americana Awards, winning with Album, Artist and Song of the Year. Alongside Robin Bennett (The Dreaming Spires, Goldrush, Saint Etienne) and Tony Poole (Starry Eyed and Laughing) he released an eponymous album as Bennett Wilson Poole in 2018 (“instant classics… hints of Willie and Levon” Bud Scoppa, Uncut) – bagging another UK Americana Awards ‘Artist of the Year’ alongside being voted Americana UK’s ‘Band of the Year’. Danny’s new album Arcade is due 20 March 2026 on the Loose label.

Book tickets now.

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