THIRD SINGLE FROM FORTHCOMING ALBUM WATERSHED PREMIERES VIA TWANGVILLE
"Lovely songwriting" - The Boston Globe
“We’ve all been in situations where the plans we made were never brought to fruition — and Arielle asks us to think of those memories on her thoughtfully delivered song of breakups and ghost ships passing in the night.” - Americana Highways on “Ghost Ships”
“Arielle Silver is a born communicator, exudes intelligence and humanity” - Music Connection
“Ghost Ships‘ is an airy folk song from Arielle Silver’s new album ‘Watershed‘, it floats – naturally enough – on the waters of recollection and consolation as Arielle Silver reflects on things that happened and the dreams that never came to be me” - Americana UK on “Ghost Ships”
“An urgent and commanding vocal” - American Songwriter
“RICKIE LEE” : LISTEN | WATCH
LOS ANGELES, CA - LA based singer-songwriter Arielle Silver has released “Rickie Lee” a bluesy, swinging rockabilly-esque ode to legendary artist and musician Rickie Lee Jones. The third single from her forthcoming fifth album Watershed (due out October 6th), “Rickie Lee” captures the fascination Silver felt when gazing upon Jones on the cover of her eponymous 1979 album. “Like much of the eponymous first album from namesake Rickie Lee Jones, it’s as much R&B and jazz as it is folk. It pays tribute to a much earlier watershed moment for Silver when she first heard that Jones LP,” says Twangville in the official premiere for the song and video. A flirty homage to discovery - of music, new ideas, and romance - the song’s vibrant electric slide guitar, warm Wurlitzer, and energetic drum kit lay the foundation for Silver’s vocals to soar. “You could say I was a new tune seeker / You could say she was a new groove preaching girl,” Silver sings. “She might say it was a track for scratching / She might say it was the needle catching.”
“Rickie Lee” is joined by a stunning music video starring dancer/actor Nicole Riviere (who has danced on stage and in music videos for artists like Peaches, Basement Jaxx, and Elvis Costello) and directed by DP/cinematographer Sacha Riviere. For Arielle, partnering with Nicole and Sacha was a no-brainer. After experiencing burnout in their respective creative endeavors, Arielle and Nicole both turned to yoga to rejuvenate their creative spirits while beginning new teaching careers. Nicole and Sacha moved into Arielle’s next door apartment, and around this time both Arielle and Nicole found their way back to music and dance, respectively. Partnering with Nicole and Sacha (who has worked with groups including Crash Adams, Hyper Crush, and Stevie Nader), the three crafted an approach to honor Rickie Lee Jones’ artistry and legacy.
The seeds for the song were planted when Silver and a fellow songwriting friend challenged each other to write a song a week. Using “record player” as a prompt, Silver tapped into a memory from a party back in college when she watched a girl queue up the eponymous Rickie Lee Jones album on the record player. “When I was in college, I had this realization that 90% of the voices I was listening to were male. I decided to more consciously seek out women songwriters, women musicians, women vocalists and in particular, singer-songwriters,” says Silver. Two records in particular, Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark and Rickie Lee Jones’ self-titled album, made a massive impact on Silver’s songwriting interest and approach.
“As I started listening to more songs and stories by women, it opened up this whole world to me. You never know the influence that something's going to have on you at the time, but looking back on those two records and all those songwriters that I discovered at that time, I see how they were models for me as a young writer. As a young woman, I saw myself as worthy and capable of taking the microphone, because I now had models of other women who had gone down that path before.”
A literary mind who cites inspiration in writers like Cheryl Strayed, Jane Austen, Jeanette Winterson, and Mary Oliver (to name a few), Silver's lyrics read like moving self-contained stories, and are further elevated by her striking instrumental and vocal performances. When writing, Silver asks herself “what is the mission for this song in the world? If I’m going to spend time creating a song, and people are going to listen, why is it worth their while? Where’s the real treasure in this song?”
This consideration carries Silver through the songwriting process to gorgeous results: fully realized songs that waste no space in delivering moving messages to listeners, while recalling past experiences and relationships, or settings that shape these narrative-based stories and emotional musings. In all, Silver crafts moving pieces that capture the heart and soul of the human condition.
“Rickie Lee” follows singles “Ghost Ships” and “Bramble Vine” as a preview for her fifth album Watershed. With support from Americana UK, American Songwriter, and more, the album was produced and recorded with Shane Alexander, whose partnership with Silver during the making of her previous album A Thousand Tiny Torches continued throughout the recording and production of Watershed.
Silver is a consummate storyteller whose Americana-roots-influenced songs are rich with imagery, empathy, and insight. Conceived in the quiet of the pandemic quarantine, Watershed takes its title as much from that watershed moment in time as it does from the North American spaces where the story-songs take place. Renewing and reflective, water runs through many of the songs as crosscurrents that connect ideas to experiences, and people to places.
Creative writing adjunct faculty at Antioch University and the founder of Bhavana Flow Yoga studio, Silver’s writing and songwriting pulls inspiration from her childhood and surroundings, from engaging character-based narratives, and a deep sense of spirituality. Growing up with the music of Paul Simon, Elton John, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, and John Denver, all artists introduced to her by her father on acoustic guitar, has led Silver through troubadour traditions across the valleys of the great American music genres; Americana & roots music, folk, blues, county, and more round out Silver’s style. She finds equal inspiration in the sounds and storied histories of Laurel Canyon and Greenwich Village.
Silver serves as the President of FAR-West (Folk Alliance Region West), where she fosters and promotes the work of artists, songwriters, and more across traditional, contemporary, and multicultural folk music, storytelling, and performing arts. She additionally serves as a key team member for the SONA Foundation, a charitable organization that supports songwriters and music creators through resources, programs, and grants for career development, mental health, and financial wellness.
Born on Florida’s Gulf Coast and raised along the Atlantic seaboard, Arielle now lives just a traffic jam away from the Pacific Ocean in her adopted home of Los Angeles. Memories of places and times serve as touchstones through her songs, as does the troubadour music traditions of folk, country, and rock that she heard from her guitar-strumming architect father. Throughout her music and storytelling runs an ethic of care, along with an essential wellspring of interpersonal relationships and ecological notice.
Silver will be performing Watershed in full on October 6th in Los Angeles at the Hotel Cafe with a full band and special guests Alice Howe & Freebo, in addition to an East Coast tour this fall.
Photo by Anabel DFlux