Tucson

My first GGS CD and certainly not my last! Excellent.

Giant Sand`s Tucson features music for a rock opera written by Howe Gelb.It`s the story of a young man who leaves his home to begin a road trip in the desert.His adventures teach him something about life;so it`s a classic journey of discovery.Gelb`s narrative is surreal,blurring the line between dreams and reality----for instance,the town he just entered being very similar to the one he`s just been through.In some respects it has similarities to Neil Young`s "Greendale".Both have songs that can stand alone,but are better heard as part of the overall story.To help the listener the album has copious sleevenotes,and even stage directions.The record is ambitious.As with other Gelb inspired releases there are many different musical directions and styles:country tinged songs,some jazz sounds here and there,American bluegrass and flamenco touches.If you`re familiar with Gelb`s recordings,you`ll appreciate such varying influences and sounds.For me this is one of Giant Sand`s better albums,probably because it has a connection running through all the songs.The idea of the narrative in the form of a rock opera succeeds,even if it is ambitious.It should have commercial appeal,but I`ve been saying this before about many of Gelb`s releases.As ever it is unlikely to reach the wide audience such a great release deserves to.

I heard the best track on Cerys Mathews on 6 Music and was just blown away by the great track 'Wind Blown Waltz'. The long album (19 tracks) lives up the first track. There are a few tracks that I don't like much but the whole album has just beautiful music. This collective of 12 people has created an album of variety with slide guitars, trumpets and male and female lead vocals.

i like the music of howe gelb, listen to it for more than 20 years, actually i like tcson too, will go to giant sand concert in vienna, but thats not the point: the cd has some problem at the end, means i cannot play it til the end ( i copied it, the copy is ok)the music gets 5 stars, the condition of the cd only TWO

Howe grew the band a little for this outing, but you wouldn't know it by the song arrangements. They remain rock-band-size, and not orchestral or string-laden as perhaps the "Opera" title would suggest. The place where you are reminded that the band has grown and has more opportunities to mix it up is when people other than Howe take to the mic to sing. Their vocal contributions both demonstrate the value of an expanded lineup - their singing is wholly wonderful and a great foil to Howe's raspy warble - and also give a feeling of multiple characters, a storyline, an opera, if you will. Lest you fear some contrived, linear tale, you'll be relieved as I to find the storyline remains as elusive as a mojave dust devil. What remains is a gausy thread of a tale, and songs - here countryish, there rough and dirgy, over there border latin - that are up to the highest of Giant Sand's standards. Blurry Blue felt resurgent, and this feels triumphant. Rich and rewarding in ways that only Howe can be. Give a listen.

It's a pretty mellow album for Howe, but the songs are are solid and the concept works! I never know about rock operas, but this one is well done with a variety of musical styles and singers. I'm enjoying it.

Following Howe Gelb's various incarnations of Giant Sand is one of the joyous trips of listening to music. Giant Sand is like visiting an old friend that is constantly remolding his home and you never know what you are going to get. You know the basic foundation and walls are always there but what has he done to change to vision of the place? I have followed them from the beginning originally buying their first simply because they were from my town Tucson, but once discovered you never want to lose them. The various incarnations of Giant Sand are always pleasing and the music and writing always superb. This time around Gelb brings 12 to the group (thus Giant, Giant Sand), the six regulars from Denmark and six from Tucson (including Gabriel Sullivan in the Tucson group who is one of the best singer/songwriters in America today! Track #9) With 12 musicians vying together you would expect a bigger, louder sound but what you get is a most intimate sound that is full of bass lines, horns and twangy guitars as if you are listening to them in a small cantina in the heart of Tucson that is lit with pepper lights, beer signs and the hope of every patron that moves to the music. This is a country opera in design weaving together songs of a man who wanders looking for his own Xanadu that perhaps lives only in his head. A trip that many of us have pursued on that bus with no destination in its view. Howie's voice is like that man you sit next to at the bar nursing a tequila sitting in the sweat stains of his cerveza. The stories he tells are mostly for his own listening but you are welcome to sit in as he takes you to places with names like Love, Hope, Despair, Wonder,Pain, Heartbreak and Redemption. His voice is full of grit, weariness and strength. Howe's voice is what you would imagine Tommy Lee Jones sounding like if he was on the porch watching the Arizona sun set as he sings the depths of his soul. But many voices are heard in this opera and all are perfect fits to the song they sing. Hard to single out one or two songs as the best, I found Wind Blown Waltz, Lost Love, The Sun Belongs to You and We Don't Play Tonight especially good but then I could also name four others that are just as good. It is rare for us to find a album of such worth and mystery as Tucson. Full of fat sounds, intimate moments, brash attitude, simplicity and the humanity that searches in us all!

The kind people at Fire Records sent this to me, and I feel stupid for not trying out Howe Gelb and Giant Sand before. This "Opera" is eminently listenable -not a weak song on it. The album is a coherent piece but every song on it is enjoyable on its own. Great stuff.