Howe Gelb

In the organizer's words:

Independent messiah Howe Gelb can make for wonderfully wild evenings.

Howe Gelb sang the "Ballad Of A Thin Line Man" back in 1986 as frontman of the legendary US alternative band Giant Sand. And even as a 60-year-old

the musician, who lives in Tucson/Arizona, walks a fine line when it comes to live performances. On the one hand, there is a breathtaking, coherent performance.

On the other hand, the man of Native American descent always runs the risk of lovingly getting on his audience's nerves.

If Howe's guitar string were to break, he would call into the room for help, but it never comes. So he sits down at the piano in the back, or at the "piano app", as he says.

He bangs wildly on the keys, playing song passages that even the other band members have never heard before. In between, there are always long dialogs with the audience - or are they monologues after all?

But it has to be. Howe has always been like this. These are Yellow's sides. That's why his fans adore him so much - as a kind of scruffy independent messiah.

A mixture of cowboy music, folk-punk, free jazz, noise, rock cabaret and poetry, that would be a categorization for Howe Gelb's music.

Howe Gelb has repeatedly changed musicians since his beginnings. Often by necessity, because many others have become famous in Gelb's wake.

John Convertino and Joey Burns, founders of the celebrated Calexico, for example, learned their craft with Giant Sand.

Howe Gelb, however, will always be Howe Gelb. A wise, wild, confused and, yes, beautiful man from the Arizona desert. Sometimes he looks like George Clooney in "Men Who Stare at Goats!" Only more animalistic.

The man from Tucson/Arizona with the earth-core deep bass in his voice will be giving a few selected guest performances in Europe in the fall of 2024.