Music
Press
"Huck & The Handsome Fee could probably give seminars on how to build a set (though with their grubby white vests they’d best not set up as stylists). Their gig is a compact, well-constructed suite of songs that builds from a quiet bluesy narrative to a punked-up Sun Records crackle without a wasted second. Humphrey Astley has a voice that milks the maximum drama from his dark songs, intoning ‘The Fall’ like a mixture of Roy Orbison and Nick Cave, and his backing is rock solid."
(David Murphy) - Nightshift
Oxford Times review of Wheatsheaf gig 01/10
'Huck and the Handsome Few were on good form. Quite where that voice comes from in Huck's slight body is a mystery of physics, or perhaps biology, but I love his driving version of Stagorlee. And he squeezes out one hell of a Passion Man. Joined by the gorgeous Tamara Parsons-Baker for part of the set, their searing, agonised vocals worked beautifully on The Fall and Jason. They got up and lived their lives the hard way...'
(Steve Hay) - Oxford Times
Discography
'Now Is the Winter of Our Discotheque' (demo 2010)
Photos
Bio
Humphrey 'Huck' Astley is a veteran of the Oxford music scene, having played bass with notorious extreme metallers Sextodecimo since their inception a decade ago. Although a lover of rock as well as the avant-garde, his heart was often in the traditional genres of blues, country and folk, and it was only a matter of time before he gave them their dues. Sunday afternoon musings on an acoustic guitar became Friday night outings when he began performing solo a year or two ago (since supporting such bright new lights as Kill It Kid and New York City's Adam Weiner), and in the summer of '09 he transplanted Sextodecimo's powerhouse drummer Tommy Longfellow from one stool to the other and recruited bassist Matt Halliday (who makes time between full-on duty in Borderville and occasional moonlighting with Stornoway and Richard Walters) to fill out the Fee sound. Tamara Parsons-Baker, a singer-songwriter in her own right and perhaps Oxford's finest female vocalist, cut her teeth at the city's myriad open mics, where she and Astley would often duet; her joining the band was the natural course of action. The result is a combo that plays hard and soft and fun and fierce, in a style they like to call 'the New Butch'. With the Tom Waits songbook in one pocket and some lipstick in the other, Huck and the Handsome Fee are poised for 2010.
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