Album Review: August Gladstone - The Golden West

Getting a bit weird with country is a good thing.

Today’s country scene is quite tribalized - a great reflection of the culture at large. From my vantage point, there are two distinct camps - the bootlickers and then everybody else.

This is the one genre that I will openly admit to being precious about. I am slow on the uptake and quick to leave someone behind when I start sniffing the bullshittery in the music. And there is plenty of bullshittery to be found.

So how pleased I was to have August Gladstone’s The Golden West sent over to me a few days back. Released May 16, this album is very firmly not bootlicking bullshittery. Plus, it does something with country that the genre sorely needs - it gets a little weird with it.

It’s tempting to label any country music that isn’t trap-pop production singing about masturbating into the American flag while driving a four-wheeler on the way to the local Klan rally “outlaw”, but I want to shake off the overuse of that term. The outlaw movement and sound - to me - usually contains a punchy backbeat throughout.

But Gladstone is more than willing to lay back, letting his acoustic guitar cut the path through carefully considered and intentional lyrics. The band showcases their willingness to really rock sparingly, and are more than equipped to handle the task when the opportunities arise. He probably put it best: “10 tracks of Western-themed antifascist folk-rock poetry - akin to an Acid-Western Leonard Cohen.”

And I dig that, honestly. The rock influence that the outlaw movement injected into country made for some of the best songs and records of the genre, but it has come to a point that it almost feels like necessity. It was nice to hear an artist not adhering to the gospel of outlaw so strictly. Rocking is truly optional for them.

She plucked from my person my package of posies
Pushed me away and proceeded to mist
She sang to me sweet with a serpentine smile
My lover is over, he’s guarding my kiss
I said

Come soldier, come pain, come to me
You be the summit, I’ll be the sea - The Ballad of Rascal Love

Lyrically, too, do we see a bit of deviation from the outlaw gospel. This verse, and indeed many lyrics on The Golden West, are far closer to something you’d find on a Townes Van Zandt or Guy Clark record than they are to “Drinkin’ and Dreamin’”. And while those two are often lumped in with the outlaw movement, I tend to separate that scene just a bit more. They’re poetry-forward, rather than rhythm-forward.

Where Gladstone puts forward Leonard Cohen, I also suggest there is just a whisper - a light dusting - of Lee Hazlewood in the production choices.

According to the bio on his website, August appeared on Broadway at age six and had a “theatrical upbringing”. Nothing better evidenced this than his album release party last night at the Escondite, an event he graciously invited me to. (Great bar, by the way. One of the few places that won’t rip you off on drinks. Was my first time there, and I will be going back. Excellent choice of venue, dude.)

Adorned in a black fringe jacket and a golden lasso around his neck, August charged into a front-to-back performance of the album. Where the record shows his restraint, his live show holds nothing back. Gladstone is a very willing frontman, he clearly enjoys playing the songs he’s written, and is gonna relish in wailing them out to the folks fortunate enough to drop by.

As a fellow theatre kid, it was a damn good reminder that performing is for yourself, first and foremost. Show ‘em you love doing what you do, and they’ll go along for the ride. (It does obviously help when you’re actually good at doing what you do, as August Gladstone very clearly is haha.)

We’ve sealed ourselves into
A seven second soundbite system
You said you saw the eyes of God
I scrolled too fast and missed them - Algorithm Blues

August Gladstone isn’t “outlaw country”, and he certainly isn’t mainstream country. At least, not unless the mainstream makes some radical changes, and I think we all know the likelihood of that.

But for all of what he and this record isn’t, what it is, is well done and pretty damn interesting. My hope is that future releases lean into the theatricality, the poetry, and the weird even more. That’s a lane he’s clearly comfortable with, and it what makes the album worth checking out.

I want to end this review with an apology and a thank you to August. First off, apologies, I got caught up and was unable to send you questions prior to writing this up.

Second, thank you for sending me The Golden West to listen to and review, and thank you for inviting me to your album release party. My wife and I had a lovely time, and although we unfortunately did not get to meet up, you did introduce me to a place with $5 bottles of Miller High Life.

Follow August Gladstone and check out his stuff:

Instagram: @NormalAugust
Tik Tok: @Frogust