About 35 years ago, a mate and I used to go into Birmingham once a month and visit the Rare Record Shop. If we spotted an album with a red Atlantic spine, we reckoned it would be worth buying. That was the same spine as the Skid Row records we loved, which was apparently all the evidence we needed.
These days, I suppose the Spotify algorithm does the job. It pointed me towards Dylan Gossett’s debut album, Westward, and I liked it enough to buy a ticket to see him on the spot. Now, a year later, he’s back with Ramblin’.
“Loving You Like That” makes the case for him immediately. The violin is evocative, but it’s the regret in the lyric that stays with you: “holding onto hope that I never should have had.” We’ve all been there, mate.
Gossett gets talked about as one of country music’s rising stars, and fair enough. But there’s more of the Texas folk singer in him than the modern country star. “Clothesline” belongs out on the dirt roads, while “Headed Back To Austin” sounds so timeless and lovely that I can imagine discovering it on an Uncut cover CD 25 years ago.
“Love and Such” is almost perfect singer songwriter stuff. There’s banjo, a girl he wants to be with and a hoedown waiting to happen. “The Old Me” carries its longing into the guitar solo. Then the title track gives us “the wind calls me by name”, which is about as pure an expression of the travelling troubadour as you’ll find.
What makes Ramblin’ special is the care in the arrangements. “Honeysuckle” begins sparsely, then brings in exactly the instrumentation it needs. The harmonica on “Head In The Clouds” has more than a touch of Whiskeytown about it. Even when the music feels warm and familiar, though, there’s usually a trace of unhappiness in Gossett’s words. You hear it in “Running From The Sun”, and “Snow Melt” turns vivid imagery into something close to poetry.
By the time he reaches “Just Fine”, he sounds as though fine is the very last thing he’ll be. “All Mine” closes the album on another intensely personal note; you don’t get the impression he’ll be letting her go any time soon.
People will call Gossett the next country star. Maybe he will be. What matters more here is that he’s a genuinely brilliant songwriter, with a gift for making these stories feel lived in. If there’s still room in the great American songbook for another page, Ramblin’ has earned one.
Rating: 9/10
