Davey
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2002
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Quote:
Wow, a Rainer Ptacek fan! Now there's a name that doesn't come up around here very often (ever?). What a great guitarist, even on his final album that Howe Gelb captured back in '97, "The Farm", when the brain tumor had almost killed him, and he practically had to relearn how to play each day. Still magical. Hadn't seen mention of this collection before, but "17 Miracles" is a great title for it. If I didn't already have all (or most) of it, I'd be on that one fast.
Howe Gelb put out one of my favorites this year in "Sno Angel Like You" and he covers three of his good friend's tunes on it. Very, very good album, kind of unlike anything he's done before, mixing his old dusty sound with a gospel choir backing. Works perfect.
But back to the time when Rainer died, Giant Sand (aka Howe and Calexico) did one with Lisa Germano under the band name OP8, called "Slush" that is great. The Opiate Slush? It's like the combination of Giant Sand and Calexico and Lisa Germano. Kind of laidback and they all contribute songs and maintain their own personalities while blending perfectly with the whole. A very special album. And "Never See It Coming" is one of the most beautiful and poignant songs I've ever heard, while still maintaining a sense of exploration and adventurousness. The music was written by Joey Burns, and it also showed up as an instrumental with a different name on his Calexico's "Black Light" (which I think was recorded right after this), but here Howe adds the beautiful lyrics and vocals that I believe are the story of his best friend and Giant Sand co-founder Rainer Ptacek's bicycle accident that led to the discovery of his advanced brain cancer (and subsequent death soon after this recording). The whole album has the feel of a jazz club type setting to me, even though most of the songs follow more closely to Neil Young type Americana and pop than jazz. Opens with a great cover of Lee Hazelwood's "Sand", and closes with Neil Young's "Round and Round", so you know there's gonna be some good tunes in-between. And the first 8 songs are pretty much all excellent. Not sure exactly what it has that I love so much, and that's the way it usually is with most of my favorites, but this one just seems to fill a missing hole for me. Fortunately, I see it was reissued not too far back as well, and some nice 5-star reviews at amazon, and you can trust them with this one
| Originally Posted by Afrikane Rainer - 17 Miracles |
Wow, a Rainer Ptacek fan! Now there's a name that doesn't come up around here very often (ever?). What a great guitarist, even on his final album that Howe Gelb captured back in '97, "The Farm", when the brain tumor had almost killed him, and he practically had to relearn how to play each day. Still magical. Hadn't seen mention of this collection before, but "17 Miracles" is a great title for it. If I didn't already have all (or most) of it, I'd be on that one fast.
Howe Gelb put out one of my favorites this year in "Sno Angel Like You" and he covers three of his good friend's tunes on it. Very, very good album, kind of unlike anything he's done before, mixing his old dusty sound with a gospel choir backing. Works perfect.
But back to the time when Rainer died, Giant Sand (aka Howe and Calexico) did one with Lisa Germano under the band name OP8, called "Slush" that is great. The Opiate Slush? It's like the combination of Giant Sand and Calexico and Lisa Germano. Kind of laidback and they all contribute songs and maintain their own personalities while blending perfectly with the whole. A very special album. And "Never See It Coming" is one of the most beautiful and poignant songs I've ever heard, while still maintaining a sense of exploration and adventurousness. The music was written by Joey Burns, and it also showed up as an instrumental with a different name on his Calexico's "Black Light" (which I think was recorded right after this), but here Howe adds the beautiful lyrics and vocals that I believe are the story of his best friend and Giant Sand co-founder Rainer Ptacek's bicycle accident that led to the discovery of his advanced brain cancer (and subsequent death soon after this recording). The whole album has the feel of a jazz club type setting to me, even though most of the songs follow more closely to Neil Young type Americana and pop than jazz. Opens with a great cover of Lee Hazelwood's "Sand", and closes with Neil Young's "Round and Round", so you know there's gonna be some good tunes in-between. And the first 8 songs are pretty much all excellent. Not sure exactly what it has that I love so much, and that's the way it usually is with most of my favorites, but this one just seems to fill a missing hole for me. Fortunately, I see it was reissued not too far back as well, and some nice 5-star reviews at amazon, and you can trust them with this one
