I am on the Southeast Alaska milk run from Seattle to Juneau as I write this review of Silver Jackson’s sophomore album, “Starry Skies Opened Eyes.” I can’t imagine a more fitting setting. The thing that first turned me on to Nicholas Galanin’s (aka Silver Jackson’s) music is the way it seems to rise out of the Southeast’s land and waterscapes. His music is Southeast Alaska. Every sound on this album is like the perfect yet seemingly random display of natural beauty also found in the stars, forests and coastlines that surrounds us. This is not to say the production and performances here are loose and without purpose. “Starry Skies Opened Eyes” is a perfect balance of acoustic instrumentation, vocoder vocals and astral aesthetic resting in an R&B production sensibility. From start to finish this record invites us into its creator’s headspace, with self-confrontation, reflection and confession. The work’s title is a reference to a time Galanin lay facing up on a cold clear night, unable to move, with a broken back, after a boat he was on crashed ashore. This near-death experience left him floating into the starry darkness of spiritual surrender.
Silver Jackson is a name every Alaskan artist and musician would do well to take note of. His 10-year commitment to the now retired Homeskillet Festival in Sitka and continued works as a multidisciplinary artist and musician show us a creator ever focused on inner vision. Indeed, Silver Jackson comes from a lineage of silver workers and musicians he actively renews with his recalibrated sounds, revisited iconography and re-imagined taxidermy. “Starry Skies Opened Eyes” was made with numerous collaborators including Iska Daaf, OCnotes, and Silver Jackson wingman Zak Dylan Wass. It is available for download at silverjackson.bandcamp.com/ There is also a limited vinyl edition.
Silver Jackson will be performing at the Halloween Skull Party this Saturday night at the Rockwell Ballroom in Juneau along with Playboy Spaceman and Scorcher Soundsystem. Doors open at 8 p.m., tickets are $15 at the door, must be 21 or older.
