The Band Of Blacky Ranchette: Still Lookin' Good to Me : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Still Lookin' Good to Me -- the fourth album by Giant Sand-man Howe Gelb under his countryish moniker the Band of Blacky Ranchette -- is all about frequent flyer miles and a rolodex, fourteen songs recorded with friends in Tucson, Arizona; Aarhus, Denmark; Austin, Texas; and just outside the Nashville International Airport (where Gelb and Lambchop mainmain Kurt Wagner are shooed away by a State Trooper while recording the bluesy "The Muss of Paradise"). Still Lookin' is a meandering delight, a shoebox full of sonic postcards with oddball scribblings that capture quick, inspired collaborations with buddies like Wagner, Neko Case and Grandaddy's Jason Lytle. Gelb's comfortable croak and a warm, spare, instrumental pocket are the vessel common to most of the tracks, with his friends putting some sun-soaked skin over the loose song skeletons. Case adds something resembling country sass on the lusciously-titled "Mope-a-Long Rides Again," while Lytle's squeaky warble offers a nice pardner to Gelb's own vox on an enjoyably lazy cover of "I've Been Working on the Railroad." Gelb might still be best known for the swirling guitar feedback he stirred up in Giant Sand. But between the beautiful and fragile The Listener (released earlier this year) and Lookin', he's quieted down a bit. Amped up or stripped down, Gelb's songs are always fascinating finds.

ANDREW DANSBY
(October 20, 2003)