Loosely speaking, there are two types of Jeffrey Silverstein song: freewheeling instrumental jams and cosmic folk ballads. "Sunny Jean" lands squarely in the latter camp. The ode to his wife is awestruck and psychedelic. Silverstein's gruff, spoken vocals rest atop an airy instrumental, which is carried by an earthy rock groove peppered with acoustic and slide guitar flourishes. "And if your blues slip away / You're in your natural state / A quiet confidence / A sense of permanence," Silverstein placidly intones on the cut's chorus. It all comes together to evoke a reflective drive down an expansive desert highway with no end in sight. If the Grateful Dead existed in an alternate universe where it operated adjacent to the 2010s Brooklyn surf-rock boom, that band would probably sound something like this.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.