Howe Gelb, ‘Sno Angel Winging It (Live) CD + DVD

By J Howell

A few years back, I read about what at the time seemed like the most bizarre thing I’d ever heard of: a Howe Gelb record that featured the Giant Sand mainstay with a Canadian Gospel Choir.

Now, I’d been a Giant Sand fan for a while at that point. I’d seen Gelb solo live a couple of years before, opening for John Parish. During his set he improvised a song about the wobbly fan onstage; at one point he even played guitar with his hands while banging on the piano with his feet. His only instructions to the soundman that night were, and I quote, “Can you make this guitar loud as fuck?”

Howe Gelb always seems to have some little surprise up his sleeve, but I have to admit, even I was baffled by the concept behind ‘Sno Angel. Until I heard it, of course. Somehow, what seemed so strange on paper made perfect sense in practice. Now that I think about it, that applies to much of Gelb’s music: try to explain it, and you really can’t, but hear it, and all its rickety, ragged genius not only works, but it’s like salve for the soul. Incredibly smart, noisy, wise salve.

‘Sno Angel Winging It documents the period of time surrounding ‘Sno Angel with a medium-length film by Maria Mochnacz (the filmmaker who made PJ Harvey’s Please Leave Quietly DVD and has worked closely with Harvey, Parish, and Gelb for years) and an accompanying CD of Gelb and his ‘Sno Angel touring band with the Voices Of Praise Gospel Choir, recorded in 2006 at the Ottawa National Archives.

During one of several snippets of Voices Of Praise director Steve Johnston recounting their initial encounter with Gelb and the subsequent record, he explains that while there is the record, there’s also kind of a second record, which is the live show: raw, spontaneous, with more improvising but also with a greater understanding of the songs by the musicians. Thankfully, there actually is a second record documenting just that now. While ‘Sno Angel is a brilliant record, this document of that particular group’s evolution in live performances is astounding.

Trying to explain Howe Gelb’s particular musical thing is a lot like the cliché that writing about music is like dancing about architecture, and is way beyond the scope of this review. Gelb seems to be one of those brilliant musicians you either just get or you don’t, and aside from fellow musicians, for whatever reason it seems like American audiences just don’t appreciate it the same way much of the rest of the world does.

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