Published on GazetteNET (http://www.gazettenet.com)
Michael Silverstone and the SilverTone5
"If Elvis Costello had been a 2nd grade teacher in the Valley, his band would sound a lot like this: with David Waldfogel guitar, Rob Douglas bass...."
--Valley Advocate Jan 25, 2013
Behind the Beat: Comic Book Camaraderie
Comments (0)Thursday, September 13, 2012
Annelisse Moyer Photo copyright 2012
Michael Silverstone and the SilverTone5
While some musicians take extended breaks from the road or join their bands on a prolonged hiatus, few artists manage to step away from music completely for multiple decades. Then there's singer/songwriter Michael Silverstone.
As the current leader of Amherst's Michael Silverstone and the SilverTone5, Silverstone (guitar, keyboards, vocals) has an old friend to thank for a midlife "awakening" that not only rekindled his interest in making music, but altered his outlook on life in general.
"I wrote some songs in my 20s, but added no new ones for about 30 years, when I had an odd and mysterious kind of Oliver Sacks-style awakening in fall of 2007," says Silverstone. "My high school friend and college roommate Marc Cohn released a song that was made of lyrics he had adapted from a letter I wrote him when we were celebrating his being alive to appreciate [his] existence after he was physically undamaged after suffering a random shooting when he was on tour."
He continues, "I started believing I could write songs after hearing one I helped write played on the Today Show, and it unleashed 30 years of unwritten songs in four years, and it's still going on."
Joining forces with David Waldfogel (lead guitar) and Rob Douglas (bass, rhythm guitar, vocals), Silverstone originally named his group Mr. Silverstone and the Silvertone Horns for his use of MIDI-generated horn sections in his recordings, and the need to find an easily understandable name to share with the second grade students he teaches at his day job. Eventually a change in moniker occurred, but not until inspiration was found in a '90s kids' show.
Silverstone says, "We came up with SilverTone5 because we were ending practice one day before a gig... wishing each other good luck, and we all piled our hands in a stack in the middle of a circle, and said, 'Go, go, Power Rangers!' I loved the mock-heroic comic book camaraderie feel of that. Rarely have we had five official members, but it sounds better than Trio, and more importantly, in my imagination we have always had five."
Working from a back catalog of roughly 75 songs, Silverstone and the SilverTone5 frequently pop up as part of the Travelling Yellow Sofa Open Mic series, which has found its most recent home at the Thirsty Mind Coffee and Wine Bar in South Hadley. Ad libbing and storytelling is often part of the show, but the group is also there to support novices in the Valley who may be performing in front of others for the very first time.
"I love living in this area. Talent equal to [that seen in] things that are known by millions is common," says Silverstone. "Not all of it is meant to be heard by millions or trumpeted through media corporations, but it is valuable, and it is beautiful that people want to do this in spite of the pressures that might divert us from making music, or the experiences that lead us to not valuing or hearing the music we make. I feel lucky and grateful for the music scene that is possible here."
Headliners
By dandenicola
Created 05/27/2011 - 5:00am
Teacher-doctor duo
When Amherst second-grade teacher Michael Silverstone (pictured) and Hadley physician Peter Weitzman met several months ago they discovered they had a number of things in common. Both were married to artists, both had grown children in college (enabling the fathers to spend more time on pursuits deferred) and both had been writing, recording and performing extensive catalogs of songs suitable for the heyday of FM radio, undeterred by the proposition that the heyday of FM radio has long since passed. Silverstone, in fact, has his own band - called Mr. Silverstone and the Silvertone Horns in deference to the form by which he is addressed by his Crocker Farm Elementary students - and has functioned as long-time host at the popular Thursday night open mic at the Yellow Sofa in Northampton. As for Weitzman: "To say he is a musician on the side is technically true," says Silverstone, "as it would be to say that William Carlos Williams was also a doctor who was a poet on the side." Chimes in Yellow Sofa proprietor Gabriel Moushabeck: "Between them, Michael and Peter are arguably the best teacher and doctor singer-songwriter combination anywhere."
Tonight Silverstone and Weizman will be sharing a double bill at the Yellow Sofa. The gig will include an effort to get into the Guinness Book of World Records for the Largest Open-Mic Orchestra Playing of a Song from Bob Dylan's 1997 Album "Time Out of Mind" Indoors. (The song is "Million Miles," and "I think we stand a pretty good chance if everyone comes out tonight," says Silverstone.)
6:30-10 p.m. The Yellow Sofa is at 24 Main St. in Northampton. 585-5877
When Amherst second-grade teacher Michael Silverstone (pictured) and Hadley physician Peter Weitzman met several months ago they discovered they had a number of things in common. Both were married to artists, both had grown children in college (enabling the fathers to spend more time on pursuits deferred) and both had been writing, recording and performing extensive catalogs of songs suitable for the heyday of FM radio, undeterred by the proposition that the heyday of FM radio has long since passed. Silverstone, in fact, has his own band - called Mr. Silverstone and the Silvertone Horns in deference to the form by which he is addressed by his Crocker Farm Elementary students - and has functioned as long-time host at the popular Thursday night open mic at the Yellow Sofa in Northampton. As for Weitzman: "To say he is a musician on the side is technically true," says Silverstone, "as it would be to say that William Carlos Williams was also a doctor who was a poet on the side." Chimes in Yellow Sofa proprietor Gabriel Moushabeck: "Between them, Michael and Peter are arguably the best teacher and doctor singer-songwriter combination anywhere."
Tonight Silverstone and Weizman will be sharing a double bill at the Yellow Sofa. The gig will include an effort to get into the Guinness Book of World Records for the Largest Open-Mic Orchestra Playing of a Song from Bob Dylan's 1997 Album "Time Out of Mind" Indoors. (The song is "Million Miles," and "I think we stand a pretty good chance if everyone comes out tonight," says Silverstone.)
6:30-10 p.m. The Yellow Sofa is at 24 Main St. in Northampton. 585-5877
Source URL: http://www.gazettenet.com/2011/05/27/headliners
Published on GazetteNET (http://www.gazettenet.com)
Headliners: Kasey Chambers, DylanPalooza
By dandenicola
Created 07/01/2011 - 5:00am
Bob-o-rama
So successful was last April's "Beatles Night" at the Yellow Sofa in Northampton that proprietor Gabriel Moushabeck immediately declared a second musical artist tribute night to be imminent. Hence Saturday's "DylanPalooza," a celebration of Bob Dylan's 70th birthday during which the Pioneer Valley Bob Dylan Impersonation Community is expected to converge for a four-hour marathon open mic session consisting exclusively of performances drawn from the singer-songwriter's back catalog of over 500 songs.
Participants are asked to pre-select two songs from the catalog and - in order to minimize transition time and cut down on guitar-case clutter - to leave their paraphernalia at home and make use instead of the musical instruments, harmonica holders, sunglasses and broad-brimmed hats that will be provided onstage.
The evening will be hosted by veteran Yellow Sofa Thursday-night open mic host Michael Silverstone, who says that "this event is for everyone, from people who have never been on a stage to people who have been doing it for years. The thing I love about the Sofa is that its audience listens and gives attention to the performer. There are some amazingly talented people who come out to open mic, but the audience has its own talent - for bringing out the best in whoever plays."
Prizes will be awarded in the categories of Best Protest-Era-Song Performance, Best Born-Again-Era-Song Performance, Best Appropriated-Blues-Structure-Song Performance and Most Accurately Memorized Song With More Than Seven Verses.
6:30 p.m. Email yellowsofa@gmail.com [2] or call 585-5877 if you wish to participate. The Yellow Sofa is at 24 Main Street in Northampton.
- DAN DeNICOLA
So successful was last April's "Beatles Night" at the Yellow Sofa in Northampton that proprietor Gabriel Moushabeck immediately declared a second musical artist tribute night to be imminent. Hence Saturday's "DylanPalooza," a celebration of Bob Dylan's 70th birthday during which the Pioneer Valley Bob Dylan Impersonation Community is expected to converge for a four-hour marathon open mic session consisting exclusively of performances drawn from the singer-songwriter's back catalog of over 500 songs.
Participants are asked to pre-select two songs from the catalog and - in order to minimize transition time and cut down on guitar-case clutter - to leave their paraphernalia at home and make use instead of the musical instruments, harmonica holders, sunglasses and broad-brimmed hats that will be provided onstage.
The evening will be hosted by veteran Yellow Sofa Thursday-night open mic host Michael Silverstone, who says that "this event is for everyone, from people who have never been on a stage to people who have been doing it for years. The thing I love about the Sofa is that its audience listens and gives attention to the performer. There are some amazingly talented people who come out to open mic, but the audience has its own talent - for bringing out the best in whoever plays."
Prizes will be awarded in the categories of Best Protest-Era-Song Performance, Best Born-Again-Era-Song Performance, Best Appropriated-Blues-Structure-Song Performance and Most Accurately Memorized Song With More Than Seven Verses.
6:30 p.m. Email yellowsofa@gmail.com [2] or call 585-5877 if you wish to participate. The Yellow Sofa is at 24 Main Street in Northampton.
- DAN DeNICOLA
Source URL: http://www.gazettenet.com/2011/07/01/headliners-kasey-chambers-dylanpalooza
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Nightcrawler: Home Sweet Home
Former Flying Lessons frontman returns to the Valley with The Sweet Remains; new Fancy Trash disc in the can.
Comments (2)Thursday, November 19, 2009
At michaelsilverstone.bandcamp.com, an Amherst second grade teacher has posted some 75 songs he has written in the past two years. As impressive as both the caliber of those songs and the sheer output are, however, it is perhaps the backstory behind Michael Silverstone's personal renaissance that is even more remarkable.
Silverstone has already secured his spot in pop music footnotes for obtaining a co-writing credit on Grammy Award-winner/childhood chum Marc Cohn's track "Live Out The String." And when he learned that Cohn had recently been shot in a botched carjacking, the Wildwood Elementary instructor says he felt compelled to reach out to his injured friend via email.
After rearranging some of Silverstone's prose, Cohn reportedly responded by advising his friend to set up a publishing company in anticipation of collecting royalties.
"He turned my letter into a song," Silverstone explains. "And he said, like it or not, you're part of rock 'n' roll now."
According to Silverstone, the entire experience jumpstarted his formerly dormant songwriting career. This Thursday, Nov. 19, Michael Silverstone and Friends perform at Noho's Yellow Sofa Cafe following the open mic.
Lastly... the Independent Music Conference (imc09.com) runs from Nov. 19-23 at the Clarion Hotel in Northampton."
Send correspondence to Nightcrawler, P.O. Box 427, Somers, CT 06071; fax to (860) 698-9373 or e-mail garycarra@aol.com.
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Audio link to NPR Story about collaboration of Marc Cohn and Michael Silverstone. Click below to listen:
http://www.wksu.org/news/story/21580