Jeffrey Silverstein 
Sitting easy at current country crossroads, Jeffrey Silverstein slips through the best shades of ambient country’s rising wave and the rippled revue of Cosmic Americana. An unflappable traveler of the cosmos, no matter how you slice it; the Northwest songwriter captures the essence of sundown calm. He’s lived in this pocket previously, hunkering down through two indispensable albums and a handful of EPs, but there’s something about Doggone that stretches out like endless highway. With the evening wind at his back, the record drives to beat the sun to the seams of the Earth. With members of Rose City Band, Akron/Family, and Abronia behind him and even a pop in from folk’s constant chameleon, Devendra Banhart, the new record rounds out as one of Silverstein’s best yet. It’s easy to get lost in the sway of Doggone, caught in it’s candor. Silverstein is a consummate collector and DJ away from the studio. His pulse on what makes a private press or cutout bin shine is baked into the bones of Doggone. It’s not lost in the milk crates, but fining it feels like a winning pull from the bins all the same.
The band has become integral to the sound over the years, displacing the rhythmic snap of his early works. That motorik heart still beats, though, with Dana Buoy tapping time with a feel that’s reverent to, but never in thrall of Silverstein’s past. The new record embraces an organic air, something that feels like it’s picked out of porch sessions, live gigs, and the kind of studio improv that occurs when a band has spent a little time getting their symbiosis in sway. The record moves in an effortless flow from Jeffrey’s weathered troubadour scrawls, through tightened instrumentals, and even an unraveled centerpiece with fellow Portland singer Merle Law that surfs through the tape hiss. Silverstein assembles the arc like he’s taking downriver with each track, just steering us where we need to go until the last moments when the ionosphere shifts just a little and we lose the signal in the high winds and fir trees.
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