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My Brightest Diamond - "Adieu Mon Coeur" (Acoustic)
As we've seen from her Roy Orbison at SXSW and Whitney Houston at a karaoke bar, etc., Shara Worden, aka My Brightest Diamond, isn't afraid of tackling covers. In this week's Drop, for instance, she takes on the Edith Piaf classic, "Adieu Mon Coeur." It's the acoustic version of a song that shows up on her all-new (out yesterday) all-French From The Top Of The World EP. We asked her about this non-album solo guitar arrangement of the track.
You seem to be an Edith Piaf fan in general (judging from this and other Piaf covers). What is it that draws you to her life and her work? There's a sad romance there. There was this period of time when I would go to Dallas for the holidays and my father would join me on accordion for a set at Club Dada. We started collecting a bunch of Edith Piaf songs for these occasions. It was a fun way for us to spend time with each other, for me to force him to get out his dusty accordion and it also saved me from having to sing "Oh holy night" at family Christmas parties each year. Grandmas love Edith Piaf.
Piaf had something that is still so arresting and it transcends generations. For me she is the image of someone who struggled, having had such a difficult childhood, and yet prevailed, with seasons of extreme grandeur and passion, but even in her adult life with such success, she also lost so much, her lover, eventually her voice ... I think it's difficult not to gravitate toward someone who left behind such a gorgeous and dense recording catalog and also such an emotionally rich and transparent one. She is one of these bridge figures, both of genre and of time. My vocal teacher in college kept saying, go listen to Piaf recordings cause your Debussy needs her attitude.
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Shara also mentioned that "on occasion" she plays the track as an encore. Maybe you'll catch it at one of these live dates.
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