Monday, Nov. 17, 2008

My Brightest Diamond will put on show to remember Monday at the Red Room

By Jeremy Dutton

Shara Worden is not so much a musician as she is an artist. On her latest CD under the moniker My Brightest Diamond, she crafts a record that plays like a painting. There’s broad strokes of musical flourishes and light notes of strings casting a glow over a lyrical background.

For Worden, the visual and aural, hold equal weight.

"A Thousand Shark's Teeth" was written based on visual cues she gathered from Tom Waits and Bjork as well as visual artist Robert Parke Harrison. Thumb through the liner notes of "Shark's Teeth" and you'll see stark photos of Worden representing the cinematic feel of the album.

The Brooklyn resident has also taken cues from her past. Her grandfather toured the country for 50 years as an Epiphone-playing evangelist in an Airstream trailer. Her father an award-winning accordionist. She embraced her past earlier this year when she opened for Portland band the Decemberists donning a three-piece white suit much like her grandfather wore.

I caught up with Worden on the phone before she was set to play a show in Salt Lake City before she made her stop Monday at the Red Room in Kennewick at 8 p.m.

"Shark's Teeth" is Worden's second full album under MBD. Previously she was with the band Awry which was a more common origination of a band. With Shark's Teeth, she opened up her musical pallet. "I wanted to create much more space in the music, but that's very difficult to achieve," Worden said. "With Awry I wrote my songs around my guitarist and when he left, I met a string quartet and changed to write around strings."

In harmony with the string trio she has in tow on this tour, she has been playing much smaller towns along the way she recently played the 1,500 person town of of Paonia, Colo., which might be an indicator of why her booking agent chose the Kennewick stop.

Worden also is known for her work with famed indie artist Sufjan Stevens. She was "head cheerleader" in his touring group of Illinoisemakers.

"I get bored," Worden said. "Working with other artists allows you to let go of your own musical objectives. To let go of the preciousness.

"And I'm constantly picking up new things. I opened up for Laurie Anderson and how she conducted her sound checks I saw her do things I never would have thought."

With her current tour as well as her show tonight, Worden said she's loved the intimacy she's been able to create with the audience.

With the string trio, she's able to "bring many different colors of sound." But it doesn't stop there: "I'll also include a few magic tricks and a puppet show. It woudn't be accurate to call it a variety show ... just an engaging show."

Karli Fairbanks

Spokane singer-songwriter Karli Fairbanks will be opening up the MBD show Monday. She'll be playing as a trio. I talked to her this weekend before a show in Orange County and she said she's been a fan of MBD for a long time and pretty stoked to lead the bill.

Fairbanks just finished recording her second proper album and expects too release in the not-too-distant future. You can expect her same embrace of old-timey instruments. "I just love funky instruments (accordions, glockenspiels) and try to use them in a refreshing way."

She also said while the Spokane scene has enjoyed a singer-songwiriter renaissance over the last couple of years, it’s still dominated (much like the Tri-Cities music scene) by hardcore bands.