published on
Giant Sand "Returns To Valley Of Rain"
Out 10th August
Blue colour vinyl / CD
Valley of Rain was Tucson’s Giant Sand’s debut album recorded in 1983, and eventually released by 1985. It included Howe Gelb on vocals, guitar and Winston Watson on drums for most of it, Tommy Larkins on drums for some of it and Scott Garber on fretless bass for all of it.
30 some years later, now that the band had been put to sleep indefinitely, those very first songs had begun creeping into the last Giant Sand tours. It somehow seemed appropriate to give them another shot with the proper amp just to see what they could’ve been. What made the idea more approachable was the availability of both original drummers living back in Tucson.
The first attempt came last summer with both Winston & Tommy and Thøger Lund on bass, as well as the 2 newest members, 29 year old Gabriel Sullivan and 23 year old Annie Dolan on double neck guitars. The sound was insane.
The funny part was Gabriel, who engineered and mixed the session, gave it an intentional 80s production sound. Howe later explained to Gabe he had been at war with that production trend since those first original recordings. So they all tried it again at Christmas time, this time with a newly discovered Fender 30 amp that had only been in production from 1980 – 1983. This new re-recording of that first album now sounds like it should’ve sounded. It was re-done for $400 and the same day and a half session time as the original. Scott Garber even drove up from Austin TX with his fretless to play so that the album is literally the originally line up for at least half of the songs. And yes, no pedal boards were used too.
The band intends to tour this summer playing only those Valley of Rain songs. GIANT SAND RETURNS TO VALLEY OF RAIN.
GIANT SAND - RETURNS TO VALLEY OF RAIN - Live Dates
04 May: Mercado Block Party Concert @MSA Annex, Tucson, AZ, United States
24 May: Tower Musikclub, Bremen, HB, Germany
25 May: Batschkapp, Frankfurt On Main, Germany
26 May: Rätschenmühle e.V. Geislingen, Geislingen An Der Steige, Germany
27 May: Dachstock, Berne, Switzerland
28 May: Feierwerk / Hansa 39, Munich, Germany
29 May: Kulturladen Konstanz, Constance, Germany
30 May: Druckluft, Oberhausen, Germany
31 May: Musik & Frieden, Berlin, Germany
02 Jun: Vega (Small Hall), Copenhagen, DK
04 Jun: Parkteateret, Oslo, NO
05 Jun: Under the Bridge, London, UK
06 Jun: Concorde 2, Brighton, UK
07 Jun: The Fleece, Bristol, UK
09 Jun: Whelans, Dublin, IE
10 Jun: The Oran Mor Glasgow, UK
11 Jun: The Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, UK
02 Oct: Roots On The Rails, Chicago, IL, United States