This has left me feeling so disillusioned...

[Geoff]

 

 

This probably sums it up -

 

"Giant came and went quickly. Pearl Jam came along, and that was it! We moved back to Nashville," Huff reflects to Rolling Stone Country. "I was a horrible frontman. I hadn't been born to be that. So I just jumped back into what I knew, which was playing sessions. In the changing face of country music, it was perfect."

I do like that sort of candidness. I can appreciate that. I never saw them live, obviously, but on record, shit frontman or not, the dude did a better job that a gigantic percentage of his peers.

I did. Its a ridiculous comment.

 

A top 10 gig of all time for me

 

 

Yeah, as I said, I can only go from what I have on the three CDs I own with him fronting Giant (I lovingly include 'III') and he nails exactly what I drone on about what I love most in music. The thing that draws me in most to a band is a vocalist who's songs clearly and evidently mean something to him. And to me, Huff sounded like he meant every single word he sung. Those ballads and mid-tempo numbers are just divine.

 

'Stay' and 'Can't Let Go' are actually two of my all-time favourite songs, ever. Not to mention the abundance on the outskirts. They did have fillers, I'll admit that. It'll be what keeps the albums outside my highest accolades, but by christ when they got it right (which was at least half their albums) they got it flawlessly right.

 

In summary, Giant definitely left a more lasting impression on me than hundreds of their peers, because to me the songs sounded so sincere. And that makes him an amazing singer and songwriter. Whether he did the splits in the air on stage, or what not, I couldn't care less. He was/is an immense talent.

[simo]

Really admire Dann Huff for everything he's done, whether it's his vocals / guitar / producing for Giant, the session work he's done or other artists he's produced. I think he's just being modest / humble when he says he was a bad frontman.

 

There are a few live videos on youtube (from the Time To Burn tour I believe) and I remember seeing or reading an interview with Dann where he says they hired another guitar player for the tour so Dann could move around more on stage and focus on singing. Despite doing a good job I don't think he ever felt really comfortable maybe that's why he's saying he wasn't a good frontman.

[phaffas]

 

This probably sums it up -

 

"Giant came and went quickly. Pearl Jam came along, and that was it! We moved back to Nashville," Huff reflects to Rolling Stone Country. "I was a horrible frontman. I hadn't been born to be that. So I just jumped back into what I knew, which was playing sessions. In the changing face of country music, it was perfect."

 

I do like that sort of candidness. I can appreciate that. I never saw them live, obviously, but on record, shit frontman or not, the dude did a better job that a gigantic percentage of his peers.

 

Ive read that quote before... and cant understand it either. Amazing guitarist and a singer with a unique passionate voice.

 

He's one of my favourite musicians... the guy has played on hundreds of records across multiple genres and is a plain legend. I find myself buying some weird albums just because he plays on them.

[Guest theczar]

Thanks for the response all, to be honest I'm over it now - it was just good to let off some steam about a band that nobody in my everyday life knew of or cared about!

 

Happily here you can relate to this fan's perspective, which helps.

 

I may still (probably) go with the piece and present it in a shortened format. For the record, here's a page from my website where I present my some favourite published pieces of writing. The Giant one's going to follow in the series of my Fireworks Expert's Guides, albeit shorter due to their brevity of albums.

 

http://www.caesarbarton.com/writing.html

[Darkstone]

Thanks for the response all, to be honest I'm over it now - it was just good to let off some steam about a band that nobody in my everyday life knew of or cared about!

 

Happily here you can relate to this fan's perspective, which helps.

 

I may still (probably) go with the piece and present it in a shortened format. For the record, here's a page from my website where I present my some favourite published pieces of writing. The Giant one's going to follow in the series of my Fireworks Expert's Guides, albeit shorter due to their brevity of albums.

 

http://www.caesarbarton.com/writing.html

Great articles mate. The Marcie Free album "Tormented" was one i wasn't aware of.

I've just checked it out and what i've heard sounds great. Thanks.

[Geoff]

Thanks for the response all, to be honest I'm over it now - it was just good to let off some steam about a band that nobody in my everyday life knew of or cared about!

 

Happily here you can relate to this fan's perspective, which helps.

 

I may still (probably) go with the piece and present it in a shortened format. For the record, here's a page from my website where I present my some favourite published pieces of writing. The Giant one's going to follow in the series of my Fireworks Expert's Guides, albeit shorter due to their brevity of albums.

 

http://www.caesarbarton.com/writing.html

 

Yeah, interesting articles. Just had a quick click on some of the links and a couple of things stuck out like anal cavities to me;

 

Do I take from your Mark Free article that the Signal album is your 7th favourite album in his discography? Behind those "sizzling" albums?

 

And with Gotthard, where on earth is 'Human Zoo?' Accidentally forgotten, or do you dislike it more than all the other albums noted there?

[Guest theczar]

Thanks for the kind words! Darkstone, ref. Mark Free, I'd definitely encourage you to seek out the Frontiers-issued 2 CD set of 'Long Way From Love' as the half dozen bonus studio tracks are well worth it.

 

Geoff, with respect only three tracks on 'Loud And Clear' really do it for me (the ones mentioned in the piece), and Human Zoo (along with 'Need To Believe' and 'Bang!') were left out as I don't like 'em as much.

Still, that's the beauty of music and our varying tastes/opinions... I'm just waiting for the grenade to land when someone spots that I've put KXM's debut at fourth place in my Lynch piece...

[simo]

Just had a read through the Marcie Free article, very good will have to check the other ones as well!! If I could make just one small suggestion it would be to use another font, I know my sight ain't what it used to be but still think it could be easier to read with a different font

[simo]

Just realized they're taken out of a magazine, so nothing that can be done about the font

[Guest theczar]

Cheers! I take the articles from the PDF issues of the magazine (which are pin sharp) but as you've pointed out, the screenshots are not quite as crisp.

[Guest theczar]

Revisiting this subject, I should point out that John Roth has always been very obliging in his communications to me. Ironically, as I'd previously interviewed him about his role in Giant (coupled with the fact that his tenure in the band was brief) John was the only member that I didn't approach for a mini interview on this occasion.

 

I've finished the article - which will be published in September - and it's a fitting tribute to a true cult act; the space that I had tentatively allocated for an interview (due to the brevity of Giant's recorded output) has been filled by a "If you like Giant, try these" duo of albums, both of which coincidentally were released in 1989, the same year as 'Last Of The Runaways'. It works - I'll include it here.

 

In closing, I was disappointed by the lack of common courtesy at the time of my original post, but solutions can and have been found and, importantly, the music itself never changes.