The 25 Days of Christmas, Day 9

A twofer doozy from a pair of indie titans.

The year was 1999. I’d been living in Ames, Iowa for two years and was contemplating a move, given the dismal job prospects I was encountering as well as a few other factors. A friend of mine mentioned that Jack Logan, a musician from outside Athens, Georgia whom we both loved, was going to play in Iowa City, about a two-hour drive away. We hopped in his car and headed that way.

There were two opening bands at Gabe’s that night. The first was a local group called Shoebox, or Shoe Money, or something like that. They were pretty good, as I recall.

The second opener was actually on tour with Jack Logan. They were a husband and wife duo called The Handsome Family. He played guitar and sang in a rich, deep bass voice, and she played a bunch of different instruments (I remember a melodica) and sang harmony. Between songs they traded joyful, witty banter that made me fall in love with both of them.

Their songs transfixed me. They sang heartbreaking, lucid poetry set to simple, direct music, and I absolutely ate it up. Then Jack Logan and his band came on and we all drank beer and hollered all night, and I pretty much forgot about The Handsome Family.

Fast forward to 2001 or so. I’m living in Memphis, working nights at the newspaper. I go to the Hi-Tone Cafe one evening to see a band whose name I will never remember. They were a three-piece with a female singer, and I know they played “Cry, Cry, Cry” by Johnny Cash. And then they played a song with this lyric:

There's a mountain north of Winnipeg
Buried under ice
And as the black clouds roll above
White pines crack like glass

Something pinged in my brain. It was a Handsome Family song! I recognized it from the Iowa City show. I hung around after the show and talked to the band and they said yeah, everybody loves The Handsome Family.

In 2003 Andrew Bird (remember that name, now) released Weather Systems, his second solo album and his first that really nailed what would come to be his signature sound. A friend of mine was the music critic at our alt-weekly and knew I loved Bird’s music, so he gave me the screener CD. I was giving it a first listen and loving it, and quelle surprise, he covered a Handsome Family song on it. It was becoming clear that everyone cool was listening to The Handsome Family. (Since then Jeff Tweedy, Phoebe Bridgers, The Mekons, and many others have covered Handsome Family songs. In 2014 Andrew Bird released an entire album of covers of their songs.)

But this is an article about Christmas stuff. Today you have two songs to listen to, and please listen to them in order. The first is “So Much Wine” by The Handsome Family:

It’s a beautiful, devastating song about the ache of watching addiction (in this case to alcohol) destroy a friend.

Where the state highway starts, I parked my car
I got out and stared up at the stars
As meteors died and shot across the sky
I thought about your sad, shining eyes

I felt justified including it here for two reasons: one, because the first line mentions Christmas; and two, because of the song that comes next.

In 2020 Andrew Bird released HARK!, an album of Christmas-themed music. If there’s one album from this entire series I’d encourage you to listen to in its entirety, it’s this one. But today we’re focusing on one song, “Greenwine”:

“Greenwine” is, stunningly, the lyrics of The Handsome Family’s “So Much Wine” set to the melody of the medieval classic “Greensleeves.” And while it’s no shock to learn that two songs in ballad meter are both in ballad meter (Google Stairway to Gilligan’s Island if you dare), the elegance with which the Handsome Family’s dark lyrics fit into Greensleeves’s brooding music is a warm delight. Mmm, that’s good Christmas.

Notes:

• For my money, “Weightless Again” is The Handsome Family’s best song. Or maybe it’s “A Beautiful Thing.” I can’t decide. They’ll both make your hair stand up. Wait, how could I forget “Don’t Be Scared”?

• I used to go see Andrew Bird live at the old Hi-Tone whenever he came through Memphis. 2001: 5 people in the audience. 2003: 25 people. 2005: Standing room only with a mad crush the entire night. I stopped going after that. I’m thrilled at the success he’s had but I selfishly loved the intimacy and experimentation of those sparse early shows.

• In addition to his other talents, Andrew Bird is an absolute ninja at whistling. In the climactic scene of the underrated 2011 movie The Muppets, young Walter stuns everyone by displaying his god-level whistling skills. Andrew Bird, as you’ve already figured out, performed the whistling for that scene.