On the third and last day of the ever-invigorating 2012 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, the great weather and magnificent music continued unabated.  On this day, we frankly had lower expectations but higher anxiety over the circus crowds.  In the end our expectations were far exceeded, and though the crowds were daunting, they were not insurmountable.

The clear highlight of the day was Giant Giant Sand, one of Howe Gelb’s many fine collectives.  While we have known and liked Gelb’s music and discography, we had never seen him live, and nothing could prepare us for the sounds crafted onstage by the incredibly talented Gelb and his band of cohorts out of Tucson.  The depth and variety of the music was stunning, shifting between southwestern high-country rock, cumbia, bolero, twang and country-folk balladry and jazz.  Gelb is a magnanimous leader, letting the other players (great singers/players Brian Lopez and Gabriel Sullivan) take the lead.  To give up the spotlight in this high-level setting speaks volumes of the heart of Howe Gelb.  Later in the set the chameleonic and multifaceted Gelb suddenly downshifted to electric piano and subtly sang and played a beautiful jazz ballad (with fine trumpet accompaniment) of the highest order.  It was as if the love child of Mose Allison and Diane Schurr was delivered and delivering.  Gelb and the Giants closed out with a rollicking rocker of the highest order (with Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones on mandolin), leaving the crowd awestruck and wanting more.

Here’s an example of Howe Gelb performing in the future: