By Randall RobertsDecember 2, 2013, 12:40 p.m.
Over 30 years and nearly as many albums, Arizona songwriter Howe Gelb has walked a singular path, one that has drawn a cultish following devoted to his guitar- and piano-based wanderings. He got his start as part of L.A.’s country punk scene with Giant Sand in the early ’80s but hit the desert and has since released a string — nay, a rope — of underappreciated curios. “I’m a Vortexan at heart,” he explains in “Vortexas,” and he’s right: Twang-accented but structurally cubist, the songs on his new album often travel wormholes few songwriters dare.
To admire Gelb is to fully expect, for example, that a song like “Triangulate” will begin with a basic structure — only to spin into an utterly baffling chorus and tunnel elsewhere. Featuring guest appearances by guitarist M. Ward (She & Him), Bonnie “Prince” Billy, KT Tunstall and Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley, “The Coincidentalist” may be an angular first listen, but spending the time to adjust to its environment is well worth it, and you may soon realize how warm and inviting a realm it can be.
Fine words from a fine writer about a fine singer song writer