Jack Silverman

Live at The 5 Spot

In early 2019, Jack Silverman met Michael Hix, who at the time was just beginning to put together his Nashville Ambient Ensemble project. Hix was impressed with Silverman’s playing and invited him to join him in the studio. Silverman accepted and contributed a composition titled “Cerulean” to the recording session, which ultimately became the album’s title track. In March of 2021, Nashville label yk Records released Jack Silverman’s Now What, a three song EP that includes his own solo take on “Cerulean”. In April, with the pandemic still preventing audiences from attending live performances, Silverman decided to celebrate the release of Now What with a live streamed broadcast from The 5 Spot in East Nashville. The audio of that show is what makes up this release, Live at The 5 Spot.

Details

Jack Silverman

Now What

Sitting down to record demos for his debut EP, Now What, Jack Silverman heard a faint and distant voice calling through his amp. This was no hallucination but, rather, a literal preacher transmitting nearby, resulting in radio interference. Never one to miss out on a happy accident, Silverman hit record and captured that evangelizing in its full mysterious form, which you can still hear throughout the final version of lead single “Mixed Signals.”

That feeling of a haunting presence runs throughout the EP. “Searchlight” embraces a winding saxophone solo (courtesy of Josh Smith) set against a noir backdrop before unfurling into a sinister guitar landscape; an aural spotlight forever circling. “Cerulean” takes a deceivingly gentler bent, with Kim Reuger (Belly Full of Stars) providing a lead piano line that transitions between a hypnotic and polyrhythmic guitar and an otherworldly squelch. These specters may not be as literal as the invading presence of the radio ghost but they create a body of sounds that evokes an otherworldly realm.

Details