Howe Gelb

ERIC WESTFALL

Today marks one year since Eric’s passing. He had since moved back to Ohio after spending the last slew of decades in Tucson.

It was 1983 when we first met at a studio in Venice California where he was hired by the label to help Giant Sand complete that first album.

From that minute on his genius & exuberance was evident. He didn’t flinch when we would boldly and incorrectly splatter the studio with ways unprecedented. He’d even go so far as to let us work in the studio all night long when we were out of cash but on deadline. He had his own keys to the place.

Mixing was like a choreography of arms across the console. Fader sliding and toggle twirls at break neck speed and wrangle. It was akin to throwing paint on to canvas. Fast and furious.

We would have never have gotten nearly as much material captured and released if not for him.

Eric was a true genius. He chained smoked. He was an insane tape cutter too. If you can find a copy of “The Doctor Is In” you’d hear how he spliced up that 2 inch tape beyond comprehension to end up with a sample sounding single featuring the infamous TV evangelist Dr. Gene Scott. Impossible with today’s limited imagination of how taping worked back when.

Sheer genius.

When we would need a hand on the piano for any of our Blacky Ranchette country sessions, Eric would play magnificently.

He was always game for traveling into the surrounding deserts with his 64 Valiant alongside my 66 Cuda. Like when we met Pappy Allen ( Pappy & Harriet’s ) back in ‘89 together ( along with John Convertino) when we blindly opted for driving out to Joshua Tree area to set up in an old rattler infested red barn to record.

When we turned him on to Tucson he decided to stay. Got a shotgun adobe on Court Ave. beside Paula Brown and I when we were preggers while he designed and built his own mini dirigible just to fly over traffic and get faster to the studio.

Genius I tell ya.

Eric also recorded a slew of Rainer tracks while he was living here. They sound phenomenal.

This was after he decided he would teach himself Japanese and move to Japan to try out engineering there for a while.

How does anyone teach themselves 500 of the 2000 characters in the Japanese language, of which he figured was enough to head over there and dive in.

I loved Eric from the get go.

He took some flack on Facebook back in 2016 for chiding conservative talking points, which seemingly made no sense, but had the most intriguing way of explaining detailed world history that lead to such declarations. Spellbinding, even when you absolutely disagreed.

Eric was a genius. Maybe a little on the spectrum. But what great artist isn’t ? We don’t make art because we’re normal and feel fine with routine. No sir. Art allows us to exist within an otherwise discombobulated planet’s impossible expectations.

Looking back now at this age, there are a few people I owe an unmeasurable debt to for all the art we were allowed to make and Eric is at the top of that list.

God bless him and rest his soul from all the ways tireless in granting great sonic vistas for those whom he worked alongside.

In a word; remarkable.

💙
- Howe