Arielle Silver

Arielle Silver is a consummate storyteller whose rich, expressive voice and acoustic guitar frame expansive melodies that echo her many homes, tours, and travels across the American heartland. The daughter of a guitar-strumming architect and a bookworm religious educator, Arielle was raised on folk festival fields and synagogue pews. Her concerts and educational workshops for creative spirits of all kinds are moving experiences that celebrate the timeless power of music and stories to connect, inspire, heal, and empower.

After a decade break from performing to focus on literary writing and Eastern philosophy, her fourth album, A THOUSAND TINY TORCHES (2020), is luminous, literate, and alive, with songs that crosscut exacting details of the seismic heartbreaks of ordinary life. Arielle’s return to music is a testament to her renewal of inspiration, the rekindling of dreams, and the redemptive power of connective compassion that defines her artistry.

On the lead single “What Really Matters,” she recalls a harrowing season in Southern California as gunshots ricocheted through a country bar and the surrounding hills ignited with apocalyptic wildfires. The follow-up single, "Headlights," is an uplifting mandolin-filled reminder that even when the road is dark and twisting, you can follow the beam of light all the way home. In contrast are incandescent songs with characters and conversations etched in fine lines and deep empathy. Vivid imagery glows with porch lights, lighthouses, bolts of lightning, fireflies, and stars that have been shining for ten billion years. 

A THOUSAND TINY TORCHES has gotten a boost from independent radio across the US and UK, including tastemaker station KCSN 88.5FM in Los Angeles. Music Connection named Arielle in their 2020 year-end Hot Unsigned Artists and Top Prospects lists. Songs from more than half the album have been recognized in major songwriting contests (International Songwriting Competition (ISC), Great American Song Contest, and Music City Song Star) and featured on NPR’s Up Close And Acoustic, selected as a Favorite Album of the year at Americana Highways, and enthusiastically reviewed in American Songwriter, Guitar Girl, and more.

Produced by Shane Alexander, A THOUSAND TINY TORCHES is propelled by the masterful playing of a sterling cast of players, with credits from Lady Gaga to KT Tunstall to Lukas Nelson: Denny Weston Jr., drums; Carl Byron, keyboards; Darby Orr, bass; Jesse Siebenberg, steel guitar; and Mike Mullins on mandolin. Michael Gehring tracked the project at Secret World Studios in Los Angeles at the historic Sound City Studios complex, and GRAMMY-winners Brian Yaskulka and Hans DeKline mixed and mastered, respectively. A loyal group of supporters funded the recording through a Kickstarter campaign. 

After launching a holiday single in 2019, Arielle returned to performing at house concerts and listening rooms around her adopted Los Angeles home, including the fabled Hotel Café in Hollywood. Through the pandemic, she livestreamed from her shed and launched Tomes & Tunes, a weekly podcast where she talks about books and swaps songs with songwriters from around the world. In 2020 and 2021, despite the pandemic, she performed 250 shows.

Arielle Silver says that when she made her break with music a decade ago, her ambition for everything stopped. “I couldn’t see the future anymore, and... it was beautiful. I became so present in a way I never had been before, and that sense lasted for a long time.”  Now, in themes that speak to losing and rediscovering the path, emerges a musical alchemy of renewal and rebirth: A loving light that is reflected from A Thousand Tiny Torches. 

American Songwriter described her music as "An urgent commanding vocal that melds KT Tunstall with Florence and the Machine.” Charlie Silvestri of the NPR podcast Up Close And Acoustic writes, “You Were Light should be heard by everyone, should be on every radio station and playlist. I'm serious. I love it.” 

She is an official artist for Shubb Capos and Guild Guitars, writes for Roland Articles, and serves on the board of FAR-West (Folk Alliance Region West branch of Folk Alliance International). She has shared live and virtual stages with America, Big Little Lions, Wendy Waldman, Elizabeth & The Catapult, Rebecca Loebe, and more.  Also a literary writer and holistic yoga teacher, Arielle is co-founder of Bhavana Flow Yoga and teaches Creative Writing at Antioch University Los Angeles.