Still Lookin' Good to Me - The Band of Blacky Ranchette

From Louisville Scene on December 6, 2003 by PAUL CURRY on "Still Lookin' Good to Me" by The Band of Blacky Ranchette (Thrill Jockey):

"The Band of Blacky Ranchette is an intermittent side project hosted by Howe Gelb, the man primarily responsible for a band called Giant Sand.

Having taken more than a few cues from Neil Young, the genre-shifting Gelb isn't generally commercial enough to be 'alt-country.' He uses the Band of Blacky Ranchette designation for recordings that are more focused in that direction, and 'Still Lookin' Good to Me' is only the band's third album in two decades.

And, really, it isn't a band. What we have here is a collection of songs with a variety of collaborators. The liner notes reveal something of Gelb's playful attitude toward the creative process; while some of the tracks are culled from studio and live performances with his Giant Sand collaborators, John Convertino and Joey Burns (the duo aka Calexico), others come from field recordings.

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