My Brightest Diamond is a chamber pop band led by singer-songwriter Shara … Read Full Bio ↴My Brightest Diamond is a chamber pop band led by singer-songwriter Shara Nova, which was formed in New York City, NY, USA (2006).

Nova is the granddaughter of an epiphone-playing traveling evangelist; her father was a National Accordion Champion and her mother a classical organist. Having a family of wanderers who migrated across the U.S. every few years, the landscape and the musical influences were constantly changing: Spanish tangos, Sunday morning gospel, classical and jazz were the accompaniment to her home life. Her first song was recorded when she was three years old, and by the age of eight she was studying piano and performing in community musical productions.

As a teenager in Michigan, Shara honed her musical prowess singing along to Whitney Houston music videos and Mariah Carey albums. When pop music wasn't enough, she enrolled in the music program at the University of North Texas, immersing herself in the songs of Henry Purcell and Claude 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 and 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. Coaxed out of recital halls and onto the small stages of bars and clubs, Shara assembled a coterie of musicians to accompany her with bass and drums, music boxes, wine glasses, and wind chimes. She released two full albums in 2001 (AwRY and Quiet B Sides) as well as a remix album with her band entitled AwRY.

In performance she showed unusual versatility, channeling the vocal theatrics of Kate Bush, the soulful seductiveness of Nina Simone and the gothic pop of Portishead. Her infatuation with theater and costumes inspired her to wear superhero capes, ball gowns, or Tudor corsets on stage, depending on her mood. Her deeply personal songs transcended the histrionics of opera; Shara was at last singing about what was closest to her heart. She began to see her own music as the most precious gift she could give to the world - as reflected in her namesake, "My Brightest Diamond".

Of course, opera never really left her, and Shara's performance blurred the lines between rock show and recital, setting baroque love songs alongside French carols and Prince covers. Her vocal lines reached for Puccini, but her guitar was pure PJ Harvey. The center of gravity here was the workmanship of a woman whose imagination had no limits. To sharpen her skills, Shara studied composition with Australian composer Padma Newsome (of Clogs) and began to incorporate a string quartet in her live show. The influences of Nat King Cole and Henry Mancini rounded out the edges. A few years later, she met Sufjan Stevens at The Medicine Show, a variety show hosted by New York City's incendiary poet, Sage, at Arlene's Grocery. This, in turn, led to a yearlong sabbatical from her work, doing splits and round-offs (not to mention the human pyramid) as one of the notorious Illinoisemakers. Shara was quickly promoted as cheerleading captain.

All of this led to an impressive resume, but My Brightest Diamond still had no album to show for it. So in 2004, she began work on two records: one featuring songs accompanied by a string quartet titled "A Thousand Shark's Teeth", and a more standard rock album featuring a full band (featuring Earl Harvin on drums, Chris Bruce on bass, and, on one song, her father Keith on accordion) titled "Bring Me The Workhorse", released to critical acclaim in August 2006 on Asthmatic Kitty Records.

Her songs distil stories to their most distressing points of contact: a phone call, an injured horse, a dragonfly caught in a spider's web. She doesn't share all the information - just the stuff that matters. The effect is a sensational compression of time, in which an entire event is summarized in a single note. This, of course, is the essence of opera. But My Brightest Diamond is much more than that. There is also the humor one might find in an old TV episode of Wonder Woman or Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Shara's songs reconcile all the complex emotions found in each of us: she can grieve as comfortably as she can laugh, sometimes in the same breath.

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We Were Sparkling
My Brightest Diamond Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

There was a silver tree
Down by a river wide
That's where we would go
To hang our pretty things
And watch the wind blow

There used to be a tree
Where we took our pretty things

We'd hook them by a thread
Golden egg, lipstick and feathers
Pieces of glass, chandelier baubles
And empty bottles of wine
And watch the light shine through

I'm afraid to forget you

I am remembering you
You were sparkling

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to "We Were Sparkling" by My Brightest Diamond are a heartbreaking ode to a lost love. The opening line sets the scene: "There was a silver tree / Down by a river wide." We can immediately imagine a peaceful and idyllic landscape, but the sadness of the song creeps in. The tree, where the lovers once went "to hang our pretty things," is now gone. All that remains are the memories of the beautiful things they once shared - "Golden egg, lipstick and feathers / Pieces of glass, chandelier baubles / And empty bottles of wine." The image of these abandoned items is both beautiful and tragic, a symbol of a time and a love that can never be regained.

The singer's fear of forgetting the lost love is palpable. "I'm afraid to forget you / I am remembering you / You were sparkling." The repetition of the word "sparkling" drives home the intensity of the memory. The use of the past tense - "we were sparkling" - only adds to the sense of loss. The singer cannot bear to forget the love that once existed, even though it is now gone forever.

Overall, "We Were Sparkling" is a poignant and poetic reflection on the beauty of love and the pain of its loss. The vivid imagery and raw emotion of the lyrics make for a powerful listening experience.

Line by Line Meaning

There was a silver tree
Referring to a specific tree that used to exist

Down by a river wide
Describing the location of the tree near a river

That's where we would go
Detailing the frequent destination of the singer and the person being spoken to

To hang our pretty things
Explaining the purpose of the trips to the tree

And watch the wind blow
Describing an activity enjoyed while at the tree

There used to be a tree
Reinforcing that the tree no longer exists

Where we took our pretty things
Recalling past experiences

We'd hook them by a thread
Explaining how the objects were displayed

Golden egg, lipstick and feathers
Listing some of the objects that were displayed

Pieces of glass, chandelier baubles
Listing more of the objects that were displayed

And empty bottles of wine
Listing yet more objects that were displayed