The Western Sky Serenades of Jeffrey Silverstein 

I first heard of Jeffrey Silverstein—aptly through his sophomore album titled Western Sky Music (2023)—while on a long, solo drive to California. It’s repeatedly been my soundtrack to the open road ever since. Apparently, I’m not alone in that. 

“We’ve only been on tour a few days, but it’s already happened everywhere I go: People are not just telling me, ‘I like your music,’ they’re telling me about really specific memories they have with it,” Silverstein says. “There’s nothing better to me than that. They’re like, ‘I took a road trip with my mom and we listened to this song,’ or, ‘I was on a drive with my best friend listening to Western Sky Music,’ or, ‘You Become the Mountain got me through COVID.’ That’s the kind of stuff musicians need to hear in order to keep going.”

Silverstein took my call while walking in Golden Gate Park’s cool, misty morning air. The night before, he’d played a show in support of Mikaela Davis at San Francisco’s Cafe Du Nord, the two of them and their bands working their way to Salt Lake City. Their upcoming show on August 6 at Kilby Court will be Silverstein’s first time playing in Utah. I told him he was in for a temperature shock.

A Portland, Oregon transplant by way of a “very sleepy” suburban town in northern New Jersey, Silverstein says he started playing guitar around the time he was in 8th grade and is largely self-taught. Back then, all of his friends were picking up instruments and forming punk bands (“Something to do outside of play sports,” he says). Today, Silverstein plays a groovy, grass-blowing-in-the-breeze genre of music sometimes coined “cosmic country.”

“I never really imagined that I would get tagged as ‘country,’ and I think ‘cosmic’ is perhaps the new word for ‘psychedelic,’” Silverstein says. “We do have a pedal steel player, which many people hear and think of country. But what’s so exciting about the pedal steel is that it’s being used for all sorts of music and all kinds of genres.” 

With that said, Silverstein admits his personal music taste is influenced by his expansive vinyl collection, which largely consists of country records because they’re easy to find for cheap in dollar bins at record stores. Listening to these quickly grew his interest in—and deconstructed his understanding of—the history of country music and how it interacts with soft rock and psychedelic, Grateful Dead-inspired tunes.

Silverstein’s passion for music doesn’t stop at creating his own. He derives a lot of joy from curating music for others, whether it be through his rotating “Headcleaner” playlist connected to his Substack or a physical mixtape he curates and hand-dubs from his aforementioned record collection and mails to paid subscribers each quarter. “I’ve always wanted to share music in different capacities with people,” Silverstein says. Like the lyrics in the mixtape series’ namesake song—“You’ve Got a Friend” by Carole King—he tailors these mixes to the changing seasons of winter, spring, summer and fall. 

Whether it be through his own music or the playlists he curates, I have a feeling that Silverstein’s tracks will play a memorable role in many long drives to come. It’s like the lyrics to his song “Gassed Up” from his latest EP, Roseway (2024): “You’re gassed up / You gotta go / You’re not lonely / You’re just alone.” But with a friend like Silverstein and his molasses-smooth delivery of meditations, you aren’t really alone, are you?

Make a new friend and groove along to Jeffrey Silverstein, in support of Mikaela Davis, at Kilby Court on Tuesday, August 6. Follow along with Silverstein at jeffreylewissilverstein.com and on his Instagram, @jeffreee.

Read more interviews with musicians:
Talking about Bug and Gardens with Kacy Hill 
Talia Keys: “This Is What I Was Put On Earth To Do.”