The Key Studio Sessions: Marc Silver

While common ground beneath the “folk” umbrella can often be elusive, one trait that comes back around again and again is storytelling. Philadelphia singer-songwriter Marc Silver has this in spades. His latest record, A Miner’s Town, started off as an exploration of the Pennsylvania shale mining industry, but it led him down variety of paths, spinning tales of industry versus ecology, of racial intolerance and homophobia by civic leaders. The album’s “historical fiction” collection of musical vignettes is thought-provoking, and Silver will bring it to the Philadelphia Folk Festival stage with a band of players assembled specifically for this project: Matt Scarano on drums, Mike Hlatky on bass, Jaron Olevsky on keys, Brad Hinton on guitar, Isaac Stanford on pedal steel, and Ryan Williams and Meg Moyer on backing vocals.  They perform at the Festival’s lobby stage on Friday at 4:30 p.m. Below, stream and download their performance for the Key Studio Sessions, and watch a video of the band performing “Priest.”