Lucie Silvas

One Liner: British pop early, morphing into rootsy almost country, with dramatic violins always involved.

Wikipedia Genre: Pop, Adult Contemporary, Americana, Country, Roots
Home: Jolly old England.

Poster Position: 28
Day: Saturday at 3:30
Weekend Two Only.

Thoughts: Always interesting when you try out one of these artists who are relegated to the absolute bottom of the poster, and (1) they have a bunch of albums; and (2) they're actually pretty good.  I mean, I know that the talent scouts at C3 aren't going out there and picking bums to come play the Fest, but its still intriguing to find a gal from England who can crank her voice relegated to the area of the lineup reserved for Kiddie bands.  Also interesting that someone on that area of the poster gets a 3:30 slot, against good shit like The Breeders and Japanese Breakfast.  I wonder how the posters are actually put together?  I'm sure the people up at the top have negotiated their ego boost on the poster as part of their contract to play the Festival, but what about all the people in small type?  Weird.

Anyhoo!  The tunes.  She has a few new singles out, and I like this much more than some of the other tunes in her most popular list.  "What You're Made Of" is her most popular track right now (other than those new singles), and is just a little cheeseball for my taste, all majestic strings and power belting.  4.3 million streams.

Oh yeah, get that wind machine going while she plays the piano.  That tune is from her debut album, Breathe In, which came out back in 2004.  Her bio says that she was born in England, but honestly her accent in that song doesn't betray any Brit.  

She was signed to a record deal after dropping out of high school to pursue music, but her first single bombed and the label dropped her.  She signed with a new label to write songs, and a few years later, she went for it again and released that 2004 album.  She released another in 2006, but none of those songs are in her top ten.  Also on that first album, she does a cover of Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" that is kind of interesting for its novelty, but suffers from the same schlocky strings and cheese.  Her voice reminds me of one of those Mandy Moore, Jessica Simpson, etc. types from this same era.

She then waited about ten years before releasing her most recent album, 2015's Letters to Ghosts.  Her most streamed song is a 2015 single, but it doesn't even appear on that album.  This is "Perfect," which has 5.3 million streams.

Ahhhhh.  Its because that is a One Direction song that she covered.  So I'm sure the army of 1D fans found her cover and streamed it a bunch, to make this her top track.  Kind of sad, actually.  Especially the little ad in the video telling people to click to hear more from her.  And again, that song is a little much for me, maudlin violins and dramatic piano.  That 2015 album actually has a semi-country sound to it, which is a departure from the prior tunes, but kind of reminds me of Sheryl Crow (try "Shame" to hear it).  Not a great album, but has some good moments.  I'm guessing the country vibes comes because she married one of the Brothers Osborne a few years ago.

But I'll leave you with her currently most popular track, one of her 2018 singles that look to be on an upcoming new album.  This is "Girls from California," with 60k streams.

Still with the violins, but I appreciate the spaghetti Western vibe of this one.  More than likely not going to go see this one, but I appreciate the fact that she has a killer voice and I may actually enjoy her new album.