Giant Sand founder Howe Gelb has flipped for flamenco.
The local rock icon has made a new album of indie-rock-flamenco hybrid songs, featuring Spain's Band of Gypsies and flamenco legend Raimundo Amador.
On Friday, Gelb, Amador and the Gypsies will play a show at Club Congress.
Flamenco is Gelb's genre-du-jour. On his 2006 album, "'Sno Angel Like You" he joined forces with Ottawa's Voices of Praise gospel choir.
Gelb's new flamenco album will be called "AlegrÃas," which means "joy" and is also a type of flamenco music.
It's a mixture of Giant Sand tracks and new material.
Launched in the mid-'80s, Giant Sand helped launch the careers of percussionists Joey Burns and John Convertino, who left to form Calexico, as well as drummer Tommy Larkins, Jonathan Richman's frequent sidekick.
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The group also helped Gelb establish a reputation in the U.S. and abroad as an alt-rock leading man.
Gelb - even more popular in Europe than in Arizona - says he fell in love with Córdoba, Spain, where he recorded his new album.
"There was something familiar about the place," he says. "It seemed more Tucson than Tucson. Every time I went there, I felt really at home there."
None of the Gypsies, who are all from Córdoba, speaks English, and Gelb's Spanish is pretty rough, so the musicians didn't do much talking during recording sessions.
Instead, they communicated with their guitars.
"They would see those weird noises I play on the guitar, and it would tickle them the same way their prowess would tickle me," Gelb says.
Amador, who is from Seville and has played with B.B. King and Björk, is a world-renowned guitarist.
"He's probably the greatest living guitar player I've ever witnessed," Gelb says. "He's got a muscle on his thumb that looks like Popeye."
Gelb expects the album will be released in Europe in May. He isn't sure when it will come to America.
This may be your one and only chance to see Gelb and the Band of Gypsies in concert, as Gelb doesn't expect they'll tour in the U.S.
At Friday's show, the Club Congress bar will offer discounted Spanish wine.
On Saturday at 9:30 p.m., the musicians will play a gig in Bisbee at Cafe Roka's Starlight Lounge, 35 Main St.
Admission is $25. Call 1-520-432-5153 to make a dinner reservation or buy advance tickets.
Howe Gelb will also perform at the TucsonSentinel.com launch party at Congress March 26.
If you go
• What: A late-night wine party featuring Howe Gelb and the Band of Gypsies, with Raimundo Amador.
• Where: Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St.
• When: 11 p.m. Friday.
• Admission: $10.
• Age: 21 and older.
• Online: hotelcongress.com
