Giant Sand / Howe Gelb

[trotsky assortment]

Through the wonder of Last.FM, I've been playing bits from the Giant Sand back-cat lately.  Some stuff, I'm loving; some stuff is leaving me somewhat underwhelmed; some stuff sounds like pointless filler. 

As someone new to the works of Howe Gelb (although I'd always known his name and read many favourable things about the works of Giant Sand), can anyone point me in the direction of some required listening?  I know the recorded output covers a fair amount of stuff.

[scarecrow]

I really like the Sno Angel Like You album that Gelb recorded with gospel singers though that's the only one I own/have heard. You certainly wouldn't be going wrong if you started there, I don't think.

[Schlippy]

My fave - Chore of Enchantment.

I got into this lot along with all the other alt.country / Americana / whatever-this-particular-genre-is-called-nowadays bands. I kinda know what you mean when you say

Some stuff, I'm loving; some stuff is leaving me somewhat underwhelmed; some stuff sounds like pointless filler.

as it took me a go or two to get into this; stuff like Lambchop / Calexico / M. Ward etc. just seemed to click straight away, whereas Giant Sand seemed to be more on the "interesting but peripheral" part of the radar. Which was a shame, as I love this album now, but yeah, did take a while before I "got it". Not a duff track on there - warm, creaky and understated for the most part, bit grungy and silly in others. A joy.

But don't just take my word for it - have a taster.

Giant Sand - Shiver

[trotsky assortment]

Oddly enough, when I made my original post, I was spinning bits of 'Chore of Enchantment' and 'Is All Over...The Map' via Last.FM.  It's still early days, but I'm getting the feeling that perseverance will pay off.

[trotsky assortment]

Giant Sand - Shiver

Ooh.  That's lovely.  I urge anyone here who likes a bit of Wilco and whatnot to listen to this, if they've not already done so.

[samadriel]

I've got 'Cover Magazine', Giant Sand's covers album (I didn't realise -- come on, shitloads of album titles are sets of random words!), as I'd heard a bit and was most impressed; ended up being a bit disappointed by the rest (their crack at a country/lounge version of 'Red Right Hand' is... well, I thought it was impossible to fuck up 'Red Right Hand', but yeah), except that I'm still quite fond of the tracks I first heard:

El Paso/Out on the Weekend
and
Blue Marble Girl

'King of the Road' is cute too, but eh.

[scarecrow]

Oh, I'd like to add to my original post that OP8's LP is very good indeed, and features Gelb, Lisa Germano and Calexico. Gelb's stuff is more understated than the others but it all works together really well + it's interesting because i think it was done in early days of Calexico(who actually contribute the best songs as far as i'm concerned)

[trotsky assortment]

I heard the version of 'Johnny Hit and Run Pauline' (originally by X) from the covers album and quite liked that too.  The long voyage into Gelb's world continues: last night, I heard a track from his solo album 'The Listener'.  That sounded like it could be worth further investigation.