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Artist
Howe Gelb
12+ albums
Alt-countrysinger-songwriteramericanafolkrock
about
Howe Gelb is an American artist who has fronted the band Giant Sand since the 80s, as well as several side projects, including The Band of Blacky Ranchette, OP8 and Arizona Amp and Alternator. THIS IS EROSION ROCK: Inaccurately yet affectionately dubbed “the Godfather of Alt. Country” by the British press, Tucson, Arizona-based musician Howe Gelb has remained the sole epicenter and creative force behind the ever-fluid configurations of Giant Sand for over a quarter century, giving birth along the way to an extended musical family tree that fostered the likes of The Band of…Blacky Ranchette, The Friends of Dean Martinez, OP8, and Calexico. "Giant Sand is a mood," explained Howe, as if to simplify the dizzying breadth of his prolific output as an artist. With an impressive catalog of material that stretches back to 1983, he can easily claim some 40 albums to his credentials as both a band leader and a solo performer, each of which maintains its own genre-defying singularity while also drawing on the not-so disparate threads of country, southwestern roots, lo-fi, jazz, and punk--or the “yippity and happenstance“ that arises to inspire the soundscape of whatever project Gelb is involved in creating. But Howe’s initial signposts were planted crookedly in Pennsylvania during the 1970s, among them being the rock opera ZEQE 24,088 which was recorded in 3 hours at a PBS radio station. In 1972, when floodwaters claimed his hometown and family house, ultimately sending him dow
