Graham Reid | | 1 min read
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One of the most interesting interviews Elsewhere has ever done – and remember, we've done literally many-many hundreds, and then some – was with Howe Gelb.
Gelb'sbest known for his band Giant Sand – which has clocked up nearly 30 albums – although he also has nearly that many under his own name.
Back in 2011 we interviewed him at length – one of our longest published interviews, a 20 minute read – about the on-going reissue of Giant Sand albums and more besides.
He was smart, opinionated, astute and funny.
The reissue programme has continued but hits an interesting point with the return of Blurry Blue Mountain (reissued in 2010, see here) and 2000's complex and extraordinary Chore of Enchantment.
The latter was co-produced by Jim Dickinson and John Parish with a guest cast which included Juliana Hatfield, Rainer Ptacek (who had died of cancer, his slide guitar added during the recording), Dave Mansfield (on Dylan's Rolling Thunder tour) and many others, alongside John Convertino and Joey Burns (who would leave afterwards to form Calexico).
The vinyl double album is a sprawling yet coherent collection of off-kilter ballads, musical misdirection, scratchy atmospheric and lo-range songs and some of Gelb's dust-blown stories (the beautiful Shiver among them).
Gelb can whisper a folk ballad which is engrossing (Dirty From the Rain, Astonished in Memphis) but also deliver confrontational gritty rock assaults (the venomous but bleakly funny Satellite).
Yes, this album is a journey. Take it.
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Giant Sand (and Gelb) have an enormous back-catalogue well worth investigating. Elsewhere has drawn some of the albums to attention previously.
You can hear and order the double vinyl edition at bandcamp here. But there's an even more expanded version is at Spotify here.
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