rare Double Post Blacky Ranchette & Shivaree...

I really wanted to a longer post on The Band of Blacky Ranchette which is a side project of Howe Gelb's Giant Sand. As you can see from the Blacky Ranchette page the folks backing up Howe are a who's who of the alt-country/desert southwest scene. You've got Calexico, Neko Case, M. Ward, Chan Marshall all lending talents on some or all songs. As I understand it The Band of Blacky Ranchette developed as a way for Gelb to really fulfill his need to play "pure" country. Though from what I've heard he sounds like he's channelling the country of Neil Young more than the country of say Willie Nelson or Merle Haggard. Anyway I could only get a hold of one MP3, which is not at all the norm here at Bars & Guitars. I've always felt you need at least two songs to get a feel as to whether or not you should shell out your hard earned dollars for music. So to make up for it I'm posting two tracks from the band Shivaree which is, as far as I'm concerned some of the best stuff I've heard in a while. I actually paid for the CD. Although I do do that a lot, it's still a testament to the bands power as I ordered it immediatelly after hearing some tracks posted by the good folks at Womenfolk (great site by the way).

1 song from The Band of Blacky Ranchette:

Mope A Long

2 songs from Shivaree:

I Close My Eyes

The Fat Lady of Limbourg

You can get (and you really should) Shivaree HERE. Hey, it's on sale right now too. Hurry.