Quote Originally Posted by Davey.
I really like that song on your year-ender with Howe, Richard Buckner and especially Neko Case. Very cool. I never even heard he had put out this album until your comp. You must have connections all over Vegas. Howe Gelb has been releasing things overseas and with different names....kind of like that crazy Will Oldham has done over the years. I guess Giant Sand is probably over for good with the success Calexico is enjoying now. It was really nice to hear them all together on the last Neko Case album, though. They have quite a synergy at times. Of course, John and Joey in Calexico have a pretty fine synergy on their own as well. Must be tough on Howe to see his band mates and good friends go on to such success without him, while his career stays down at a much more obscure level.

So anyway, I was meaning to ask you how the rest of that Howe Gelb album was but I guess you answered already by placing it on your top ten. How'd ya find out about it? Unklebob?
Nope, I turned HIM on to it..... I think I saw a blurb about it on insound.com that got my attention initially. It's a fine piece of work, I think, as long as the music matters more to you than the production values. The notes for the songs indicate where each was recorded, such as, "Hand-held field recording", "Recorded near birds", Recorded on the fly", or "Recorded outside the Nashville airport." Some are normal studio-type recordings and sound great, though, a couple of live performance cuts as well. The opening cut, "Train Singer's Song", gets stuck in my head constantly. It's a definite KEEPER.

Here's what I said about it on the old forums when I bought it.

"Mostly The Band of Blacky Ranchette's new one-"
Posted by: tentoze Oct-28-03, 10:16 AM

"Still Looking Good To Me"-Howe Gelb's decidedly lo-fi side project that features appearances by R. Buckner, Neko Case, Chan Marshall, Lambchop's Kurt Wagner, and Calexico. A wonderful seat-of-the-pants affair: standout cut- a duet by Neko and Buckner. If you even think you like Gelb, go buy it now.