‘Sno Angel Winging It

Sno Angel Film

Last night I went to see one of my favourite musicians at the cinema.

Howe Gelb, the man behind Giant Sand (among others!), released an album in 2006 called ‘Sno Angel Like You, which he recorded with the gospel choir The Voices of Praise.  It was one of my favourite albums that year, and is still one of my favourites out of Howe’s (vast) back catalogue.  The show the performed in Reading when they toured the UK in support of the album remains one of the best gigs I’ve been to as well – there’s something about the blend of the choir’s voices with Howe’s material that was just magical.  So, I was rather excited to hear that there was a tour movie in the works.

It’s described on Howe’s website:

‘Sno Angel Winging It is a music documentary which follows the collaboration of alt-country troubadour Howe Gelb, his band and Voices of Praise gospel choir. Filmed in the UK, Spain and Canada over 2 years by Maria Mochnacz (film-maker, PJ Harvey – On Tour: Please Leave Quietly (2006)), it shows the coming together and subsequent recording session and tour of musicians from very different backgrounds. In the words of choir director Steve Johnston, “Taking a gospel choir, with what we stand for – our beliefs, out on the road with a rock and roll band; you have absolutely no idea what to expect!” They released a studio album ‘Sno Angel Like You in 2006 and will be releasing a live album with a DVD of this film, later this year.

My ticket...

Howe and Maria are taking the film around the UK over this next couple of weeks, last night being the second showing, at the ICA in London. It was a small cinema, and probably around 100 people were in the audience. The movie itself is great – it’s not a concert movie, nor is it a documentary about the tour, but more of a montage of clips of the band performing the songs interspersed with interviews. The audio of each song was from a single performance (I think), but the video was usually from a number of shows. In the Q&A after the show Howe and Maria discussed how this was done and Maria made the point that Howe never performs a song the same way twice, and frequently changes the words as well, so that really must have been a challenge – but one that worked perfectly.

There was a question from the audience after the show that emphasises how well this works. Someone asked Howe how he got the sound of a prepared piano out of the keyboard he played on stage – the answer being that he hadn’t. The sound of the performance was from a totally different show where he did have a proper grand piano to chuck his batteries in, but Maria had edited the film so well it looked seamless.

The movie was about 50 minutes long, and had most of the songs from the ‘Sno Angel Like You album on it, plus a few extras, including a lovely and stately Astonished (from Chore of Enchantment). Howe did ask if it was too long – I think the general opinion was that it could have been another 30 minutes longer and we wouldn’t have been bored!

Howe said that they were hoping to release the movie on DVD in a digipac along with the live CD, and to get it out before xmas – so I know one thing that’ll be on my list this December!

Edit: Now looking forward to the show at the Luminaire on the 4th Oct!