This week in Freak Scene, Matt Silberstein, a longtime fixture on the Western Mass. music scene, releases his debut as December Boy, plus Silvie’s Okay is well worth a listen.

It feels like Matt Silberstein has been a mainstay on the Western Mass. music scene for as long as I’ve been keeping track. For a while in the 2000s I saw him at every show I went to. He has been the box office manager for more than one local venue, plays bass and sings in Salvation Alley String Band, knows pretty much everybody and is a consistent, upbeat supporter of musicians here who are bringing their songs to life. Now it’s his turn.

December BoyDecember Boy

Silberstein is calling this musical project December Boy, and he picked an auspicious moment to release the self-titled debut: today is his 46th birthday. It was 2014 when he started writing the dozen songs on December Boy, and he’s been chipping away at recording them since 2015. Befitting a guy who can go deep on the Band or the musical contributions of drummer Russ Kunkel to the Laurel Canyon sound, December Boy has a heartland folk-rock feel built around layers of acoustic and electric guitars, fleshed out with keyboards, ukulele and mandolin that Silberstein played himself. The album also includes contributions from Noam Schatz on drums, Jim Bliss on bass, Andy Goulet on pedal steel guitar and his Salvation Alley bandmate Ryan Quinn on organ, synths and handclaps.

Much of December Boy is a meditation on loss: “grief and how we process it and carry it in our day-to-day lives and how it shapes us,” Silberstein writes in the liner notes. Yet grief is not an all-consuming black hole here so much as a fact of life: to live is to love is — eventually, inevitably — to lose. These songs are as much a celebration as an elegy, though the line can be blurry as Silberstein remembers friends, family and even musical influences who are now gone.

In fact, reminiscence is as much a theme as grief on December Boy: “We had it all back then,” Silberstein sings on “From Behind the Mask,” propelled by a jaunty bassline, slippery tendrils of pedal steel guitar and a whirring organ. Later, “My Whole World” has an NRBQ-style bar-band sensibility thanks to swiftly strummed acoustic guitar and layers of vocals as Silberstein reminds himself that neither life nor love are inherently fair. “Hard Time Up Till Now” digs into the difficulty of letting go of the past in favor of living in the present, and Silberstein sings over a bed of acoustic guitar and drums, topped with layers of analog synthesizers that range from subtle to gleaming.

The song gets at a conundrum at the core of December Boy, which is the tricky balance between holding fast in your heart to lost loved ones — especially those who leave too soon — without letting it define you. That Silberstein could make an album like December Boy shows he understands that balance: these songs are a loving act of memory from a musician (and person) who still has some ground to cover.

Catching Up: Silvie’s Okay and ‘Whiplash’

This is going back a bit now, but Silvie’s Okay has occupied a little corner of my mind since I saw them play with Gold Dust at the Drake in May. The project of Vince Thompson, who grew up on a ranch in the Southwest before landing in Western Mass., Silvie’s Okay has a wrenching alt-country sound on one EP and handful of singles released over the past few years, including the track “Whiplash,” which came out in March.

Silvie's OkayWhiplash

It's a song about trying to make sense of a relationship through a haze of self-doubt, and Thompson sings in a rich, expressive voice over a blend of pedal steel guitar, violin, acoustic guitar, bass and drums that reflects his love of 2000s pop-country.

“When I wrote this song I felt bitter and I felt young and like someone else was driving the car in our relationship,” Thompson wrote on Instagram when the song came out. “I was riddled with insecurity that they didn’t care if I was in the car at all, which made me latch on tighter while feeling angry at them for not doing it how I wanted, instead of just saying ‘Wait … I could just get out of the fucking car.’”

Better yet, “Whiplash” shows that Thompson should take the wheel.

Upcoming Concerts

The acerbic author and commentator Fran Lebowitz speaks April 18 at the Academy of Music in Northampton (tickets).

The Iron Horse in Northampton hosts Western Mass. queer punk act Film & Gender Jan. 31 with Amherst band Bubble Scary and Hudson Valley "glitch-hop" trio AFK (tickets), blues veteran Bobby Rush, who is 92, Feb. 4 (tickets) and local sister duo the Nields Feb. 7 (tickets).

Jack Manzi returns home Dec. 26 for a performance at the Parlor Room in Northampton (tickets). Also coming: New York singer Lydia Von Hof Jan. 9 (tickets), Jackson and the Janks Jan. 15 (tickets), Crys Matthews Feb. 4 (tickets) and the excellent local group Norma Dream Feb. 14 (tickets); they were the subject of Freak Scene #87.

The Drake in Amherst hosts pop-rock band Laundry Day Jan. 31 (tickets), singer-songwriter Emily King Feb. 12 (tickets), Vermont instrumental jam band LaMP (Russ Lawton, Scott Metzger and Ray Paczkowski) Feb. 26 (tickets), the horn-oriented cover act Brass Against March 6 (tickets), Peter Bernstein Quartet March 7 (tickets) and Arizona jam band Spafford March 10 (tickets).

Spafford also play March 15 at Infinity Music Hall in Hartford (tickets). Reverend Horton Heat are there April 19 with Black Joe Lewis and Tex-Mex punk band Piñata Protest (tickets) and the Wallflowers perform May 10 on the 30th anniversary tour of their breakthrough album Bringing Down the Horse (tickets).

College Street Music Hall in New Haven presents Rainbow Kitten Surprise March 7 (tickets) and the Mountain Goats May 17 (tickets).

If '90s guitar pyrotechnics is your thing, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai bring their SatchVai Band to the Palace Theater in Waterbury May 22 (tickets).

The Space Ballroom in Hamden hosts the Black Heart Procession Feb. 13 (tickets) and Yacht Lobsters March 14 (tickets).

That’s a wrap on this week — thank you for reading! If you like what you’ve seen, please share. Also, I’m always open to submissions. You can send music for coverage consideration to erdanton at gmail or reply to this email. Check out these guidelines first.

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