LA singer-songwriter Arielle Silver released the folk-pop ballad “Bramble Vine,” the first offering from her forthcoming fifth album Watershed out October 6th. Silver was inspired by the blackberries that grew outside her childhood home for the song, and leads the viewer through piemaking and a performance in the Kevin Rhoades directed and produced music video. “One day I was making pie and thinking about relationships,” says Silver, “and thinking that some kinds of love are complicated but worth the work.” An earthy, scenic singer-songwriter ballad in 6/8, “Bramble Vine” is grounded in acoustic guitar and tender piano, and exemplifies Silver’s literary approach to songwriting, or in her words – “literate folk pop.” 

“Some kind of love is like that / sweetness buried in a thorny patch / bramble vine, heat, and time / form a heart from the scraps,”  sings Silver over delicate acoustic strumming and an understated Wurlitzer. “Bramble Vine” is rounded out by memorable performances from celebrated musicians including producer-singer-songwriter Shane Alexander (backing vocals, electric guitar, glockenspiel), composer Darby Orr (bass, piano, Wurlitzer), and Denny Weston Jr. (drums, percussion). 

As a longtime yoga practitioner and storyteller, Silver’s goal as a songwriter is to carry these practices and philosophies into her music, and to imbue the songs with a sense of purpose for those listening. 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. 

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. 

Photo Courtesy: Anabel DFlux