Recounting The Ballads Of Thin Line Men

In August 2019, Taylor Swift announced she planned to re-record her entire back catalog after her nemesis Scooter Braun purchased Big Machine Records, the label that released her first seven albums. If Swift needs or wants any advice as she makes her way through this project, she might consider having a chat with Howe Gelb, who may or may not be doing much the same thing, though presumably for different reasons. After Gelb announced he was disbanding Giant Sand in early 2016, he changed his mind and put together a new edition of the band in 2018. However, the first release from the resuscitated Giant Sand was Returns to Valley of Rain, in which they created new versions of the songs from the groups 1985 debut Valley of Rain. A bit less than a year later, Gelb and Giant Sand issued another studio set, Recounting the Ballads of Thin Line Men, and this time they re-cut most of the tunes from the second Giant Sand LP, 1986s Ballad of a Thin Line Man. Even by Gelbs inscrutable standards, re-recording two albums in a row seems like a truly strange move, but Recounting the Ballads of Thin Line Men at least does a better job with this concept than Returns to Valley of Rain. This lineup of Giant Sand -- Gelb on guitar, keys, and vocals, Annie Dolan and Gabriel Sullivan on guitars, Scott Garber and Thoger T. Lund on bass, and Winston Watson on drums -- sounds more broken in and the members more in tune with one another on their second trip to the recording studio, and theres a playful soulfulness to the performances thats more satisfying. Hard Man to Get to Know invokes the spirit of Neil Young & Crazy Horse with its buzzy guitars and loping rhythms, Desperate Man is a solid exercise in flinty punk-abilly, Tantamount finds Gelb having fun playing with words, and Who Am I is spare in a way that plays to the advantage of the melody while putting the lyrics up front. Just as on Returns to Valley of Rain, Gelbs insistence on digging deep into his catalog rather than cutting new material is hard to fathom, but Ballad of a Thin Line Man at least finds him and his bandmates sounding great and feeling engaged with the material. After nearly 35 years, just about anything from Giant Sand is still worth hearing, and fans will enjoy this second go-round with these songs. ~ Mark Deming