LOS ANGELES, CA - LA based singer-songwriter Arielle Silver has released “Ghost Ships,” an evocative folk-pop song and second single from her forthcoming album Watershed, out October 6th. “The video is hopeful, foreboding and simultaneously lovely and soothing, just like the song itself,” says Americana Highways in the premiere for the stunning stop-motion video crafted by accomplished animator Damon Wellner. Navigating through musings on youthful love and the innocence of first heartbreak, “Ghost Ships” finds inspiration from two literary sources, including Cheryl Strayed’s essay “Ghost Ships” from her book Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life From Dear Sugar, as well as writing Silver had previously published. With the official seal of approval from Strayed herself, who described the song as “beautiful,” Silver sets a course through reflective waters on “Ghost Ships.”
“A song about journeys not taken, the idea for this emerged from a flash essay I wrote called ‘The Sleeping Porch,’ first published in Under The Gum Tree.” Silver’s stunning guitar layers, paired with lush vocals and a beautiful cello feature underscores the lessons learned through yesterday’s currents. Joined by an all-star cast of performers and instrumentalists including producer Shane Alexander, Justine Bennett (Jakob Dylan, Liz Phair), Denny Weston Jr. (KT Tunstall, Don Was) “Ghost Ships” is a voyage into the past, while recognizing these lessons and relationships are ultimately a compass for the future.
The video was completed in collaboration with Wellner, who translated Arielle's vision and journey with the song into what you see today. “When we first talked, I shared the studio recording and lyrics with him, along with the 13-point sketch that I had imagined,” says Silver on the collaborative process. “He showed me some paper-animation work that he had done for a previous project, and it felt like we were exactly on the same page (no pun intended) right from the start.”
Wellner and Silver also snuck in multiple easter eggs in the video that reference her written work, as well as images and details from her everyday life. It's a breathtaking effort that truly enhances the meaning and power of the song. "The story in the opening magazine shot was of ‘The Sleeping Porch.’ The next imagery of the piano was from a home where I was performing a house concert, and the rest of the furniture and pictures are from my living room. That's my cat leaping onto the piano bench."
A literary mind who cites inspiration in writers like 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.
“Ghost Ships” and first single “Bramble Vine” follow Silver’s 2020 acclaimed album A Thousand Tiny Torches. With support from Americana UK, American Songwriter, and more, the album was produced and recorded with Shane Alexander, whose partnership with Silver 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.
