In a New York Groove

This past Thursday night, Hayley Griffin (above right) hosted her New York Groove Party at Berlin, the music venue below 2A at 25 Avenue A. 

The Silk War were the headliners with a record release party. (Singer-songwriter Alexandra Blair is on the left in the top pic). 

EVG contributor Stacie Joy stopped by for part of the evening, which included a set by local singer-songwriter Fiona Silver and her band, guitarist Guy Fiumarelli, bassist Steve Salerno and drummer Sonny Ratcliff ...

Stacie had another commitment and couldn't stay for the whole show... but she did catch DJ Bailey Leiter's turn in the DJ booth (you may know her from her Hello Banana vintage shop on First Avenue) ...

... and captured a few other moments ...

Year in review

 

This week local singer-songwriter Fiona Silver released a video for her latest single — the aptly named "2020." 

Silver wrote the song and also directed the video. As she explained: 

"I wanted to make a video that reflected some of the themes of [2020] — protests, police brutality, environmental issues, financial insecurity, and of course the COVID-19 pandemic, combined with the incredible perseverance of spirit I found from people coming together, supporting each other, and celebrating life in the face of fear. It's been a wild year..." 

Her band features Guy Fiumarelli on guitar, Steve Salerno on bass, Brian Duke on drums and Gregg Foreman on keys.

To 2021!

About Fiona Silver's 'Thunder and Lightning'

Thunder and Lightning is OUT NOW!!! @itunes @bandcamp and wherever else you get your ear candy! Link in Bio ⚡️ Thank you to everyone who was a part of this!!! Engineered/produced by @boomitchellmemphis Recorded at @royalstudiosmemphis 🎸@guyfiumarelli 🥁 @codydickinson 🎹 Reverend Charles Hodges #hirhythm Bass 🎸 #davesmith 🎺 @mfrankl3 🎷 #KirkSmothers Mixed by @joweewunsch Mastered by @tomfoolery11235 Album Art Photo @cortneyarmitage

A post shared by Fiona Silver (@fionasilver) on Jul 30, 2018 at 7:03am PDT

East Village-based singer-songwriter Fiona Silver released her latest single today, a very personal track titled "Thunder and Lightning."

She talks about the song in an interview published at Bust:

"Thunder and Lightning" is a really special song to me. There are times when inspiration strikes, and it feels otherworldly — this is one of those rare times for me. I was struggling to cope with the loss of my older brother, sitting in the room he was born — where we grew up together in my small East Village apartment — and I wrote the lyrics to this song. It was about a year ago, right before my album was going to come out, and I took a phrase from the first line of the song and titled my album Little Thunder as a precursor to this track.

I knew I wanted everything about this recording to be significant and special to me. I had come to Memphis for the first time on tour and met Boo Mitchell (a Grammy award-winning producer) outside of the venue I played at, by chance. A few months later I came back to Memphis to record with him at Royal Studios, where his father recorded all of Al Green’s records.

Check out the song here.

Silver is currently on tour with Gary Clark Jr. ... they'll be out in Prospect Park on Aug. 9.