I had a few topics to bring up soon, but I was distracted by a show hosted at The Space featuring our friend Shara. Her band, My Brightest Diamond, is currently blowing up in a huge way. I can say I once played a poorly amplified, even more poorly played (on my part) show in Brooklyn with some of the early sketches of her current songs, and the extent to which she has matured and come into the full glory of her voice is really incredible. (Not that she could ever hide the natural instrument she has, they don’t make people who can sing like this every day.) Also, Shara’s husband and manager and touring companion and…, James, remains one of the nicest human beings I’ve run into, as well as being kind of inspirational in terms of how to be a steward and supporter of the dreams of one’s spouse. For me, this has been one of the harder things to learn about, so he gets the “my hero” award for the week.
Regardless, the show was a brief encapsulation of why I continue to spend time working at The Space. There were about 70 people there, stunned into silence, and then uproarious applause. We don’t get many “natural” encores at The Space, but this was one for the books. So, my normal trepidation around what constitutes “fair use” of copyrighted material has to lean a little in the saddle while I link to one of the more joyful things ever: Shara reinterpreting Nina Simone. If anyone gets offended, let me know, but for now, I wanted to share this.