Venues
Events
MediaFeature
The Next Generation of Experimental Pop
Classically trained Shara Worden brings her layered compositions and avant-garde sensibility to Le Poisson Rouge
Shara Worden
| | More
The classically trained Shara Worden is a fiercely talented multi-instrumentalist whose sound falls somewhere between Joni Mitchell, Laurie Anderson and Jeff Buckley. Nevertheless, she retains her own distinct experimental style. Raised by a “champion accordion player” father and a classical organ-playing mother in Ypsilanti, Michigan, Worden went from her own band, Awry, to being a member of Sufjan Stevens’ touring band (The Illinoisemakers) and back to her own thing, under the moniker My Brightest Diamond. Based on the work she is now producing, it’s hard to imagine her backing up anybody ever again.
My Brightest Diamond will take the stage December 13th at the former Village Gate on Bleecker St., which was resuscitated this year as the avant-garde venue Le Poisson Rouge. It is difficult to predict how many musicians Worden will have with her, but her new record, A Thousand Shark’s Teeth, features marimbas, harps, clarinets, French horns, guitars, vibraphones, violins, drums and more. With her powerful opera-trained voice, Worden could easily pull off a one-woman show but is more likely to have an eclectic band in tow to explore her layered compositions, which are equal parts movie score and rock song.
Like Buckley, Diamanda Galas, Freddie Mercury, Thom Yorke or Beth Gibbons, Worden’s ability to sing in that rarefied upper register with total control makes for some pretty dramatic sounds. I am personally holding out hope that she will find a way to perform her up-tempo dance version of “Tainted Love,” but would gladly settle for her singular, soaring voice doing acrobatic leaps over a string trio.