The Third Eye

Ambient country is a genre I’ve had a closer eye on lately, and a new group making this cosmic American music is Cowboy Sadness. The supergroup from Kingston, New York, released its first record, Selected Jambient Works Vol. 1, on January 19th, featuring nearly an hour’s worth of layered textures of the high and lonesome sound.

Cowboy Sadness is a collaborative project featuring members of The Antlers, Bing & Ruth, and Port St. Willow, and they say their music is the sound of the desert’s vast, ragged landscape. The stylistic signatures of each member of this trio are David Moore’s heavy, undulating organs, Peter Silberman’s melancholic guitars, and Nicholas Principe’s galloping, hypnotic drums. The trio creates Cowboy Sadness’ thick textures, cavernous spaces, and deep grooves.

Selected Jambient Works, Vol. 1, was recorded and mixed between 2017 and 2021 in New York by Principe, and it was mastered by Gus Elg at Sky Onion. Silberman wrote about the project on The Antlers’ Substack, a post that doubles as liner notes for the new album. He says Selected Jambient Works began as a regularly occurring ambient jam at a Brooklyn club where the trio would improvise for hours, capturing everything on a handheld recorder.

The band name Cowboy Sadness also shows the band has a keen sense of humor. The ambient country genre is often defined as “high and lonesome” and noted for evoking feelings of isolation. So, in a genre known for melancholy, the group puts the sadness front and center. As pointed out in a Bandcamp Daily post about the record, the “Sad Cowboy” aesthetic is also a trending internet meme of the moment. I don’t use TikTok, but the kids tell me the “sadcowboy” hashtag has about 27 million views and counting.

Whether Cowboy Sadness takes the ambient country genre tag seriously or not, Selected Jambient Works is an excellent addition to the growing genre. The spaciousness and synth-infused bliss on tracks like “Second Rodeo” would sound just as good in a spa, but make sure you have an old spaghetti Western film on the TV on mute. “Ten Paces” – my favorite track – languidly flows with waves of changing sound and colors like a lava lamp. All the tracks seamlessly blend like a collage of sound paintings for a listening experience that’s calming but sophisticated enough to appeal to psychedelic music fans. There are plenty of post-rock influences, too.

Call it jambient, bootgaze, or cosmic country. Whatever you call it, Cowboy Sadness’ Selected Jambient Works is good stuff, the type of tunes to clear out your chakras and provide refuge in our crazy times. Let’s hope volume 2 of the group’s jambient sounds comes out sooner rather than later. Enjoy!

Check out Selected Jambient Works, Vol. 1 by Cowboy Sadness on Bandcamp here.

Support Cowboy Sadness by finding them on Bandcamp or Instagram.

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