My Brightest Diamond

My Brightest Diamond is Shara Worden, granddaughter of an Epiphone-playing traveling evangelist, fathered by a National Accordion Champion, and mothered by a church organist. Spanish tango, Sunday morning gospel, classical and jazz were the accompaniment to her home life. Her first song was recorded at age three and by age eight she was studying piano, performing in community musical productions and singing in her Pentecostal church choir, in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where she spent most of her childhood.

Shara honed her musical prowess singing along to Whitney Houston music videos and Mariah Carey albums. Wanting to explore the voice more deeply, she enrolled in the music program at the University of North Texas, immersing herself in the songs of Purcell and Debussy. After college, she moved to New York City and fell in love with its cold winters and busy streets. She continued to study opera on the Upper West Side during the day, but at night she frequented downtown clubs such as Tonic, Knitting Factory, and The Living Room, catching performances by Antony & The Johnsons, Nina Nastasia, and Rebecca Moore. She began to spend less time sight-reading Mozart and more time de-tuning her Gibson electric guitar to play her own newly-written songs. On the small stages of Lower East Side bars and clubs, Shara assembled a coterie of musicians to accompany her with bass and drums, music boxes, wine glasses, and wind chimes.

In 2005, Shara began work on two records: one featuring songs accompanied by a string quartet (A Thousand Shark's Teeth), and a more standard rock album featuring a full band (with Earl Harvin on drums, Chris Bruce on bass, a glorified, multi-tracked string trio and, on one song, her father Keith on accordion) titled Bring Me The Workhorse, which will be released on August 22nd, 2006 on Asthmatic Kitty Records.