Hometown: Tucson, AZ
Formed: late '70s

Personnel:
Howe Gelb -vocals, guitar, keyboards
Joe Burns -bass, cello, guitar, backing vocals
John Convertino -drums
Rainer Ptacek -slide guitar
Jim Dickinson, John Parish, Rob Arthur -keyboards
Kevin Salem -guitar, drum loop
Alan Bezozi -drum loop
Rich Mercurio -drums
John Abbey, Paula Brown, Scott Loder -bass
David Manfield -banjo, pedal steel
Paul Brown, Jackie Johnson, Susan Marshall-Powell, Sofie Albertsen-Gelb, William Brown, Lydia Kavanaugh

Related Artists :
Calexico

The Fall's Mark E. Smith once proclaimed "I am the dice man," but one night whilst he was rummaging around for his next pint, Howe Gelb pocketed his bones. Gelb's been guided by chance ever since, zigging and zagging across a rock 'n' roll landscape bounded by the southwestern desert, which is the soil that nourishes his sun-baked creative vision, and Europe, where his band Giant Sand's imported-beer status has sustained enough of a fan base to pay his bills.

Giant Sand were originally a fairly straight-ahead rock band, but after he picked up those dice Gelb began to incorporate improvisational elements into his guitar playing (which got wilder) and writing (which became more surreal). But random isn't a guarantor of quality; Gelb's dives after the muse have come up with clams as well as oysters. Chore Of Enchantment is the first Giant Sand album in five years, but it seems to have benefitted from its lengthy gestation -- it's the best platter of Sand I've ever heard. Rather than go into the studio with a few songs and wing it, Gelb recorded on and off with three different producers; Jim Dickinson, John Parish, and Kevin Salem. The consequent polish and diversity of recording approaches has yielded a pearl of an album, a multi-faceted meditation on hard-won love and heart-breaking loss. If that sounds heavy, don't worry; Howe couches his observations in a casual, drawling delivery that makes them quite approachable.

The record's arrangements are rich and detailed without sacrificing the chance elements and head scratching strangeness that have long marked Gelb's work; cassette tapes of opera singers and drum programs that sound like samples of dumpsters being slammed shut co-exist with cooing backup singers, Willie Nelson-styled acoustic guitar leads and Crazy Horse-worthy electric racket. I'm enchanted!