Jeffrey Silverstein – ‘Western Sky Music’ (2023)
‘Western Sky Music,’ an enchanted lingering disembodied low-keyed America dreamscape by Jeffery Silverstein is a soulful masterpiece, a brilliant deduction and exploration of the cosmic structure that holds everything tentatively in place, delivered with haunting laidback vocals that will roam around in your head effortlessly.
What’s laid down on ‘Western Sky Music’ is not expansive, it’s smooth, it nearly evaporates, it hovers close to the earth with a resounding warmth of things half remembered, things held just out of sight and is intoxicatingly delicious. It’s impossible for me to discuss this album without making reference to Rose City Band or Relatively Clean Rivers, but only in passing, as Jeffery Silverstein and his band of nimble weird latter-day cowboys own the patch of ground on which they stand, beholden to no one. The record is a couchbound wonderland, filled with independent jangles and melodies that dovetail together like blue smoke caught on a breeze drifting out of an open window, just as a big ol’ smiling orange moon is rising over the mountains, filling the atmosphere with good time pastoral vibes.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that William Tyler took some time off to dance his guitar across the song ‘Chet,’ along with Karina Walker adding a bit of sugar with her voice on ‘Birdsong In the Canopy’.
*** The album has been pressed to both black (edition of 200) and white vinyl (edition of 200), and if you make the choice, the bundle package delivers a Jeffery Silverstein box of matches and a bumper sticker … or you may take the easy way round and download a copy from Bandcamp.
Jenell Kesler
Jeffrey Silverstein – ‘Western Sky Music’ (Arrowhawk, 2023)
