While the world rants and raves about Nick Cave (deservedly so), there is another baritone that has been doing the dark and mysterious on his own terms for just as long: Howe Gelb. Yes, the Giant Sand luminaire has certainly earned his artistic privileges and then some with his dusty vibrato and windswept mysterious tunes that harken images of sepia cinematography.
And yes Pieta Brown has her own resume of unheralded records and a smoky delivery that has earned her admiration and guest spots from John Prine and Mark Knopfler. So mix Gelb and Brown together with the renowned pop chamber collective The Colorist Orchestra and the results are both splendid and imposing.
Glide is premiering the new Christmas single, “Gold Shining” (below) which explores The Colorist Orchestra’s daring approach to musical interpretation and reinvention with two righteous voices, making for a most opportune yet unorthodox orchestral collaboration. This is perhaps the most non-cliche Christmas song this holiday season?
Speaking on the single, Pieta Brown said:
“I wrote ‘Gold Shining’ on a cold winter afternoon in Iowa looking out at my neighbor’s yard…decorations…snow and lights…and it was my sweet friend Iris Dement that told me I ‘better record that song’ after she heard me sing it at a show one night. I think it was a couple years later that Howe texted me one day out of the blue and asked me if by some chance I had ever written a Christmas song? I sent him a little demo of Gold, Shining…and away we went! Howe made an organ version demo and we sang back and forth and sent it over the ocean to The Colorist Orchestra…and they put the gold right in it!”
Howe Gelb mentions…
“All of a sudden, Christmas was upon us in a blink. But the dampendic was still making it all so hard to think. I turned to my sonic co pilot and gave her a wink: ‘Maybe you have a Christmas song we can do up .. what do ya think?’
She turned with that smile: ‘Ooh yeah, The Colorist Prchestra could fill it quick with what they do, and throw in the kitchen sink!’ I mean .. this has been the mean time, and we all could do with a drink .. Instead, we gave it a go, (with the Lowrey organ in tow), and a cluster of love bundled in, in hopes the old spirit would regardlessly kick in, and fill the song up with joy to the brink. Then the magnificent video should follow it up while we all applied the smilingly lip sync.”
