Like First-Aid Kit, Silver Lining is a Scandanavian act fostering a quaint acoustic soul that is as stunning as it is emotionally luminescent. Bringing together members of two prominent Norwegian acts, The Northern Belle and Louien, folky Americana quartet Silver Lining has sometimes been dubbed a supergroup in their native country. Moving on from the sound of their mostly acoustic debut, the band introduces a broader Americana sound on their sophomore album, Go Out Nowhere.
Consisting of four instrumentalists, three of them also singer-songwriters, Silver Lining debuted with the low-key and mellow Heart and Mind Alike in 2018. The album was well received in the band’s home country, and reached a much wider audience, thanks to several “streaming hits” reaching millions of plays.
A telling illustration of the thriving Norwegian Americana scene is the musicians’ willingness to collaborate – on stage, on each other’s records, and in new constellations. One early example is the birth of Silver Lining. Bringing together members of then-emerging The Northern Belle, and the now-defunct Rattlers, the musicians came together for a Gillian Welch tribute show in 2015. They quickly discovered that this project had potential outside of playing cover songs, and quickly started rehearsing and writing.
The angelic voices of Stine Andreassen and Live Miranda Solberg fit perfectly with the rougher, Dylanesque voice of Halvor Falck Johansen. The three singers’ acoustic guitar interplay is interwoven with and elevated by Bjørnar Ekse Brandseth’s electric guitars, pedal steel, and dobro.
Glide is premiering the divine jewel “Your Everything” that recalls the haunting soul and melodic precision of Neko Case, First Aid Kit, and Laura Marling. Voice first Americana is a rarity in these times of overblown string instruments and Silver Lining lives up to its name of spectral harmonics.
“It’s a song about all the insecurities one can face when first falling in love with someone, maybe creating problems that aren’t there, imagining what their life was like before you met them. It’s kind of a lonely moment we’ve tried to portray, how difficult it is to share these insecure thoughts and feelings with others. It soon became a favorite with both Stine and me, as well as the rest of the band, and we’ve played this live quite a few times before recording it” says Solberg.
