Silverwing

One of Northern Nevada’s most popular band’s is Silverwing. Started by Mel Warstler in 1993, Silverwing has performed everywhere, from entertaining a few miners in the lonely mountain town of Ione to thousand’s gathering at the Pony Express Pavilion in Carson City during the 2008 election race to hear Governor Sarah Palin speak to the neon stages of Reno, Nevada. Although Silverwing has been called a country band, that description doesn’t do... More

One of Northern Nevada’s most popular band’s is Silverwing. Started by Mel Warstler in 1993, Silverwing has performed everywhere, from entertaining a few miners in the lonely mountain town of Ione to thousand’s gathering at the Pony Express Pavilion in Carson City during the 2008 election race to hear Governor Sarah Palin speak to the neon stages of Reno, Nevada. Although Silverwing has been called a country band, that description doesn’t do it justice. Anyone who has heard Silverwing is amazed by the dual southern rock guitar leads from Mel and Sean Rold, the bluesy vocals from Georgina Arze, the driving rock drumming from Brandon Hooten and the songwriting of Mel and Mary Warstler. Seasoned by years of performing all over the state, Silverwing is well known and well respected. Silverwing is currently promoting its second CD called “County Line.” At the CD release party, it received a great reception. Like the first CD “Moonshine” the music is written by Mel Warstler and the lyrics are a joint effort, including contributions from his wife Mary and keyboard player, Georgina Arze. At this time, several songs are charting at www.numberonemusic.com including “The Price He Has to Pay” which is currently #1 on the Nevada Country chart. Our first CD “Moonshine” has remained on the N1M Top 20 Nevada Chart for 52 weeks with different songs trading places at #1. In addition, Mel’s solo performance of “Angel Band” has been viewed at Facebook almost 6400 times. Since Silverwing is named after the Merle Haggard classic Silver Wings, it’s safe to say he was a major influence. As a matter of fact, our current CD “County Line” includes two cover songs, “Mama Tried” and our theme song “Silver Wings.” Plus, the CD includes Mel’s original tribute song, “Angel Band,” which he wrote within 24 hours after hearing of Merle’s passing and the song “5 to 10” which is a nod to Merle’s classic “Mama Tried.” Since new country is not very country and it’s almost impossible to find a decent song to learn, we rely on the classics from Merle, Johnny, Conway and the great George Jones. But we also enjoy the up-tempo honkytonk country sound from Brooks & Dunn, Dwight Yoakam and others. Add in a love of guitar virtuosos, such as Richie Blackmore from Deep Purple, and calling Silverwing a country band, just doesn’t fully explain what happens throughout a gig where we start as a country band and end up doing Stevie Ray Vaughn and ZZ Top. You need to hang out the entire night to fully understand Silverwing. Visit our site www.silverwingband.com to find out where we are performing. Feel free to reach out to Mel at his facebook site and we look forward to hearing from you or meeting you at our next event. Less