Howe Gelb
The Listener
(Thrill Jockey) "reviewtext" There's no getting away from the Scandinavian vibe at the moment. In a year that's seen jazz, electronica and dance revitalised by the likes of Jaga Jazzist, Supersilent and even (God help us) Röyksopp it somehow seems fitting that alt country should finally get back to the fjords! Ok, we're not talking about Nils Petter Molvær at the Grand Ole Opry, but Giant Sand mainman Howe Gelb has been to Denmark, and the results are most favourable. Though as ubiquitous as always (he's appeared on albums by Neko Case, Steve Wynn and John Parrish in the last six months alone) Gelb's success has been a little overshadowed by his fellow Giant Sand cohorts in Calexico. Yet this album is a fine addition to the genre that he and John Convertino seem to have built around their locale (indeed, other Tucson locals, Brett and Rennie Sparks of the Handsome Family guest on one track). As with last year's Cover Magazine, Gelb melds a parched humour with a (superficially) shambolic approach to the recording process and a puckish experimentalism. The Listener is credited to 'Howe Home' yet it's a solo album imbued with typically honest self-examination concerning the constant battle against ennui and depression that plagues the 'professional' musician. Just check the diary entries on the sleeve. The signature shuffling ambience of the piano instrumental ''Glisten'' ushers in the witty ''Felonious'', a strangely post-modern take on Neil Young's ''Borrowed Tune'' that, instead, speaks of his theft of a Lou Reed riff. In fact, the spirit of Reed hangs heavy over the entire album. Gelb affects a very Lou-ish approach to his singing that works spectacularly well on the tracks recorded on his 6 month sojourn in Denmark. Utilising local band Under Byen, Howe conjures the icier spirit of the North, especially on the duets with vocalists Marie Frank (''Blood Orange'') and Henriette Sennenvaldt (''Torque (Tango De La Tongue)''). The latter is, indeed, a tango that seems part-border canteen ballad and part-Bjorkish tease. Remarkably it works. Throughout, Thoger T. Lund's upright bass adds a jazzy undertow while elsewhere the glitchy clicks and echoes add the usual sparkle to Gelb's dusty musings on shaky relationships (''The Nashville Sound'') and life in a wilderness (''Cowboy Boots''). So, another low-key release made refreshingly lovely by serendipitous collaboration. As Howe himself says on ''Cowboy Boots'': 'I'm doing good work out here'. Yes, indeed. Breezes from the Baltic seem to make as good a muse as the dry Mojave winds of Tucson. It seems Gelb takes the desert with him wherever he goes... Reviewer: Chris Jones

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/folkcountry/reviews/howegelb_listener.shtml

 Released: 17th March 2003