Music

Arielle Silver – Bramble Vine

by Vodka

Arielle Silver first crossed Vodka’s path in 2020, and I was impressed. She had been making music at that point since around 2004, so she wasn’t new to the business. The review for What Really Matters appeared in March 2020, followed by the review for Headlights in May. With the pandemic happening during that time, many musicians had to get creative to continue to make money in the many months that followed. She hasn’t had an LP since 2020’s A Thousand Tiny Torches, which contained both What Really Matters and Headlights.

Vodka is always interested to find out how artists made their way through the pandemic. I reached out to Arielle to ask how she had weathered that storm. 

Vodka: 

A Thousand Tiny Torches was released in 2020 and the pandemic happened soon after. What sort of effect did the pandemic have on your life and your musical plans?

Arielle: 

“The singles for A Thousand Tiny Torches were released in late winter/spring of 2020, just as the U.S. was being hit hard by the pandemic. The album came out when we were in full quarantine. Music venues and restaurants were closed. I never toured on A Thousand Tiny Torches, and there was no album release party at a favorite venue. “
“I’m a believer that the creative mind benefits from constraints, whether artistic like an AAAB rhyme structure or blue color palette, time management like a deadline or some other limiting factor. The quarantine time brought novel constraints, and though I despaired at the reason for the quarantine, I delighted in the quieter living that it brought. Musically, in 2020 and 2021, I did what I could to explore creative solutions within the constraints, and since music has always been about connection, I leaned into connecting in new ways. Communities of all kinds – families, schools, yoga studios, religious groups, and more – were learning the capabilities and limitations of live streaming and Zoom. We were crossing geographic boundaries like never before, and I virtually traveled to Folk Alliance and the regional organizations like FAR-West and NERFA, as well as venues like Club Passim in Boston and Swallow Hill in Denver. Every week I produced and hosted two live streams –Tomes & Tunes, a weekly book talk and song swap with songwriters from around the world, and “Arielle‘s Acoustic Happy Hour,” where folks from all over tuned in and chatted.”
“That first year, I focused on connecting to others in whatever ways were possible and advocating for A Thousand Tiny Torches. The second year, though, I turned back to my writing desk. One song at a time, I tried to capture some of the feelings and thoughts of the watershed moment in which we were living. What came out were songs with lyrics about kindness, love, appreciation, and times’ passage. Many of those songs are what became Watershed, which releases later this year. While I found ways to flow in the constraints of the quarantine, I am very happy to be on the road touring and gearing up for a full band album release show in Los Angeles in October.”

The aptly named Watershed LP is due out October 6th, 2023, and Bramble Vine (seen/heard here) is the first single from that LP.  

Bramble Vine is a homespun remembrance, done up in Silver’s signature Americana meets folk-pop style, of a bygone time. It weaves the analogy of sweet and thorny berry bushes, blended with like-hewn love, and it is a great story:

“Blackberries grew in the thicket north of our yard
In summer we’d pick them and come home with stickers
And thorns in our arms

Some hours later when supper was plated and served
We’d barely remember the pain for the pleasure
That went into making dessert

Some kind of love is like that
Sweetness buried in a thorny patch
Bramble vine, heat, and time
Form a heart from the scraps
Like making pie from scratch
Some kind of love is like that”

The music here is a plodding, slow-paced number, that serves to best present the message. A beautiful melody, a Silver signature, is combined with her wonderfully clear and ringing alto vocals that leave no doubt that the lyric is king here. It’s a melody that is easy to sing along with and becomes an instant hit between the ears. In short, if Watershed is anything like this single, Silver should have a hit on her hands.

Arielle Silver
Arielle Silver

You can find more information on Arielle Silver by visiting her very nice website. I can’t find a thing missing, all purchase, touring, contact, and streaming links appear to be there. If you would like to support Arielle Silver more directly, she also has a Patreon account (accessible from the website). 

In addition, I highly recommend 2020’s A Thousand Tiny Torches available for purchase from the website store and Arielle’s bandcamp.com site. Watch for Watershed this fall, and pick that up when it drops!