The Gould Standard
The Gould Standard, at its solid core, is Rob Gould and Ken Glasser. Rob writes most of the songs we play. He sings ‘em along with his guitar or piano. Ken sings harmony, plays dobro and lap steel. We chose our covers to fit with our overall sound which is roots, folk/rock and outlaw country flavored.
Rob’s Story
I started writing songs in 2008 when I was 58. It was a bad year. No coincidence. I did the normal thing, sharing them tentatively with a circle of family and friends, hoping for encouragement and getting it. That circle now includes people I’d loved forever, people I grew to love through music and, more recently, people I’ve not yet met. People’s whose original songs I like also like my songs. This is a big deal to me. When the very talented Ken Glasser said he liked my songs so much he’d like to be my musical partner and create The Gould Standard, that was a big deal to me.
Rob’s body of work now includes two 10-song albums and two singles. Recognition has included multiple song-writing awards from the Mid-Atlantic Songwriting Award contest (including a Grand Prize for Song of Year), being under consideration for a Grammy for best Roots Song and being a Finalist for a WAMMIE.
The ambition for someone of my years is simply continue to create and share music, build and support my music community and get into whatever good trouble I can with it. As Yip Harburg famously said, “a lyric can make you think a thought; music can make you feel an emotion; but a song can make you feel a thought.” That’s what we’re all up to.