When Howe Gelb moved from the Los Angeles area back to Tucson in 1992, two friends he met there followed: percussionist John Convertino and a young bassist named Joey Burns.
Together, the trio become a popular incarnation of Giant Sand throughout the '90s, releasing a string of albums between 1991 and 2002.
It was also during that time that Gelb was spending more time looking after his daughter, Patsy, and that the side project of Convertino and Burns, Calexico, began taking off.
"It started getting sticky," Convertino said.
Giant Sand began losing a lot of momentum around this time, Gelb said, and in an effort to get a fresh slate, the trio made an album under the name OP8 with singer-songwriter Lisa Germano.
By 2000, the parallel projects of Calexico and Giant Sand became more of a hindrance than a help.
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Convertino and Burns left Giant Sand to focus on Calexico full time and have since gone on to great success, recently appearing several times on the 2007 soundtrack to the Bob Dylan biopic "I'm Not There."
Gelb remains friends with Convertino, but there is a "sea of silence" between him and Burns. Gelb said he'd like to see that change soon.
To this day, Giant Sand and Calexico have not shared a bill.
– Kevin W. Smith
