SALUTE TO BRETT AND RENNIE SPARKS
WHEREAS, For more than two decades, the much-acclaimed songwriting team of Brett and Rennie Sparks, known as the Handsome Family, have been crafting a unique blend of true and tall tales tinted with modern melodies of darkly colored melancholy that historically pervade the American folk tradition; and
WHEREAS, Vocalist and composer Brett Sparks is a native of Odessa, Texas, where he studied music and briefly worked around the oil rigs of which that city is famous. In the mid-'90s, he came to live in Chicago with his wife, fiction writer Rennie Sparks, a New Yorker from Long Island whom he married in 1988. In 2002, the Handsome Family released an album they recorded at Schuba's, one of this city's iconic live music venues. Today, the Handsome Family do all their record all their in a converted garage studio at their home in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and
WHEREAS, Although they have enjoyed a vociferous and loyal following, the Handsome Family's poignant and powerful music has garnered the attention of a much wider audience with the selection of their 2003 recording of Far From Any Road" as the theme for "True Detective's", cable-TV giant Home Box Office's Emmy award-winning series starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson; and
WHEREAS, On September 5, 2014, the Handsome Family will be appearing at the Hideout Block Party & Onion A.V. Fest, once again bringing back to this city their remarkably eclectic mix of macabre, sweet-sad ballads and historic story lines that mark their alternative country/traditionalist music; and
WHEREAS, The Honorable Robert W. Fioretti, Alderman of the 2"d Ward, has apprised this august body of this extraordinary and remarkable duo and their significant musical achievements; now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, That we, the members of the City of Chicago City Council, assembled here this 10,h day of September, 2014 AD, salute Brett and Rennie Sparks for their exceptional and distinctive talents and not...
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