Boy Golden - Best of Our Possible Lives
Six Shooter
Released on February 13th, 2026
Something strange is brewing in the world, or at least in mine. We’re now two months into 2026 and my two favourite records are both ostensibly country albums, or perhaps they’re albums from artists who present as country but are taking the genre to strange new places. Best of Our Possible Lives is a far cry from the Boots and Hearts scene and we’re all better for it. Think Tulsa in the 70s, not Nashville circa right now. This is high art filtered through a set of sounds and styles that aims to please the people in the cheap seats, and I’m here for it.
In a recent press release published by his label, Six Shooter, Boy Golden (aka Liam Duncan) says “Best of Our Possible Lives is a record of a mind and a heart grappling with change, searching for answers through song.” While there are obvious musical touch-points and influences, those influences play like reverence rather than overtly referential or derivative.
Boy Golden recorded the album far from his Winnipeg home at Lucy’s Meat Market in Los Angeles, bringing a selection of members of his touring band (The Church of Better Daze) in his trusty Toyota Previa along for the ride. However, the record includes some serious studio pros, most notably Pino Palladino (John Mayer Trio, The Who, NIN, and D’Angelo amongst countless others) on bass. Feist and Bahamas producer Robbie Lackritz recorded the album, and the warmth and space between the instruments feels of a place with those artists, particularly the sound and feeling of the rhythm section.
The album balances the duality of incredibly heavy, philosophical lyrical themes “We all Suffer” (from “Suffer”) “You can tear things apart/you can make a boy cry/you can break a man’s heart/but you can’t break mine” (from “The Matter at Hand”) with the ease of a man who is starting to see the world for what it really is yet still takes the time to crack a joke at every opportunity, “My love is pumpkin pie/My love’s Cool Whip/My love won’t tell a lie/So I never let one slip” (from “Cowboy Dreams”). Even the album title is a play on several literary and philosophical tropes, but in the end, Boy Golden is not trying to find anything more than love and good times.
“New Orleans” floats by on a gorgeous shuffling acoustic guitar line reminiscent of JJ Cale’s early 70s sound filtered through his own psychedelic, hazy point of view.
Another early standout is the lush, gorgeous “Chickadee”. Equal parts love song and road trip diary, the song glides along Palladino’s fluid bass line, twisting and turning like the many rivers and lakes referenced throughout. He’s searching for something profound but in the end finds beauty and simplicity in something as small as a bird.
“Cowboy Dreams”, one of two tracks featuring Stratford Ontario’s Cat Clyde is perhaps the heaviest on the record, with a big fuzzed out guitar riff and a set of lyrics that play with cliches without ever feeling clumsy “my love would fly away if my love had wings/my love would spend the day doing all your favourite things/If I were a playing card, I’d be your queen/you’d be the ace of hearts in all my cowboy dreams.” It all builds and swells towards a psychedelic crescendo, swirling fuzzy guitars, pedal steel and big cymbals pierce through the rhythm.
Perhaps the most surprising track is the 2nd duet with Cat Clyde, “Moontan”. The song starts out as a simple, acoustic-driven shuffle, with a simple refrain “darlin, darlin come over/it’s 8 o’clock and I’m getting sober/darlin, darlin come over/don’t you make me wait/I’m getting older” when suddenly the song turns on a dime into what can best be described as country funk. It shouldn’t work, but it works so well.
The absolute highlight is “Eyes”, a stunning, heartbreaking song that feels like as much like a eulogy as a wake or celebration of life. “Don’t it all go by too fast?/You wake up one day and it’s gone/Ain’t no way a good a thing lasts/Unless you put it in a song.” The pedal steel and electric guitar swell as the song builds and builds. After the first listen, I was gutted, completely crushed by the lyrics longing for something that was seemingly out of reach. After the second, I was filled not with sadness but with hope, that the unreachable was still somehow possible.
This record is the real deal. Catch Boy Golden on the road throughout the spring across Canada and the US. It might be the last time you’ll get to see him play in rooms this small.