Crystal Bright

Crystal Dawn Bright is an award-winning musician and multimedia artist from North Carolina. She is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, music teacher, performance artist, theatrical director & producer, and holistic health coach / nutritionist. As founder and leader of the band Crystal Bright & the Silver Hands, she has released three studio albums and one live album, been reviewed internationally, and performed with the North Carolina Symphony. She won the North Carolina Symphony's Triangle Talent Search in September 2010 and released an award-winning music video in October 2011. The local YES! Weekly named her Best Singer in March 2012, Best Songwriter in May 2014, and Best Musician in the Triad in May 2015. Her music has been called "carnival folk, fairytale pop and gypsy jazz" and was described by the BBC as "a pleasant kind of bonkers."[1]

Crystal Bright
Crystal Bright
Background information
Birth nameCrystal Dawn Bright
BornAnnapolis, Maryland
United States
GenresWorld music, folk, jazz, Flamenco, Cabaret, Mariachi, Brazilian Samba, Balinese gamelan, Chinese, Indonesian, Ugandan
Occupation(s)Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, music teacher, performance artist, theatrical director & producer, holistic health coach / nutritionist
InstrumentsVocals, musical saw, accordion, keyboards, concertina, adungu, bombo, zheng, piano, guitar, vihuela
Years active2010 (2010)–present
Websitewww.crystalbrightandthesilverhands.com

Education and awards

Bright was born in Annapolis, Maryland and raised in Mount Pleasant, North Carolina,[2] where she began taking music lessons at the age of seven.[3] After performing in numerous high school musicals, Bright studied Drama[4] before earning a Bachelor's degree in Anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.[5] She then earned a Master's degree[6] in Ethnomusicology from Florida State University[2] while performing in a variety of genre-spanning acts.

Crystal Bright

Inspired by P.J. Harvey, Björk, Tori Amos,[7] Tom waits, Yann tiersen, Gotan project,[8] Lhasa de Sela and The Tiger Lillies, Bright played in Mariachi, Balinese gamelan, Chinese, Ugandan,[9] Brazilian Samba and Indonesian ensembles.[5] After graduate school, Bright traveled the world[3] where she studied flamenco dancing in Spain,[9] worked for the Montana Conservation Corps in Yellowstone National Park,[8] and became further acquainted with other cultures and their music.

She won the North Carolina Symphony's Triangle Talent Search in September 2010.[10] The local YES! Weekly named her Best Singer in March 2012,[11] Best Songwriter in May 2014,[12] and Best Musician in the Triad in May 2015.[13] She was featured as the Nimbit Artist of the Week on the PreSonus Studio One Blog in December 2014[14] and was featured on Band of the Day in May 2015.[15]

Her singing has been described as "captivating and mysterious,"[16] featuring her "mystical, even otherworldly"[17] vocal inflections. Her "operatic voice teems with ethereal beauty"[18] and she plays many unusual instruments, including a musical saw, accordion,[19] keyboards, concertina,[20] adungu (Ugandan harp),[21] bombo (Argentinian drum),[20] zheng (zither),[9] piano,[16] guitar[8] and vihuela.

Bright is a certified[2] Holistic Health Coach / Nutritionist[22] with a degree from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York City.[23] She practices through her company Crystal Bright Holistic Health.[22]

Art and theater projects

Bright acted, sang and played music in two collaborations with mixed media sculptor Grey Pascal at Acme Art Studios in Wilmington, NC. "20/20: Filters of Light and Insight" was a 3D performance art piece which debuted on May 28, 2010 with a theme that revolved around two mythological lovers striving to express divine beauty.[24] "Downward Spiral" took place on October 15, 2011 and illustrated the metamorphosis of a girl into a woman who exudes creative power.[25]

Bright wrote, directed, produced and starred in the musical interpretive movement theater production "Illuminating and Transcending the Shadow," which featured her performing with her band the Silver Hands and a cast of 16 costumed actors.[4] The whimsical yet impassioned[18] production chronicled the journey of conquering the self-imposed oppression that holds people back.[3] The show was co-produced by Rusty McDonald of DividingMe Photography.[4] The show debuted at the Broach Theater in Greensboro, NC in October 2010[26] with three further performances at the Greensboro Fringe Festival's 10th Anniversary Showcase at the Cultural Arts Center's City Arts Studio Theater in January 2012.[18]

Bright co-produced and starred in "Bones & Lilies," a collaboration with members of The Flowjo Family Circus which combined a musical concert with experimental theatre, performance art, interpretive dance, and circus arts including acrobatics, aerial silks, hooping, belly dance, juggling, stilt walking and a fire processional.[27] There were two performances on March 2 and 3, 2012 at The Flowjo in Carrboro, NC.[27]

Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands
Crystal Bright

Founded in Greensboro, North Carolina in 2010, Crystal Bright & the Silver Hands take their name from a classic piece of folklore by The Brothers Grimm.[19] "There is a story called 'The Handless Maiden'," Bright said, "and it is about her losing her hands and gaining them back in the end, representing her coming into her full creative and soulful self, which I felt like I was doing then, and am still doing."[28] "I had written all these songs and I needed help in creating a band and taking my music to the next level. The Silver Hands help me create something bigger than my own hands could."[7]

Crystal Bright

Compared to Kate Bush,[9] Gogol Bordello,[29] Danny Elfman,[30] and Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione's The Dresden Dolls,[31][32] Bright creates "a haunted, whimsical, multicultural sonic cabaret"[33] – "the sound of dark fairy tales"[29] and "European carnivals."[22] They deliver a "grand sense of theatricality"[34] with Bright's unusual and unexpected arrangements and time signatures.[35] One reviewer wrote that "the Silver Hands understand the importance of a little chaos... especially among such beautifully orchestrated music."[21]

With songs deeply rooted in folktales, fables,[36] myths and dream archetypes,[2] Bright's lyrics and melodies portray the world as a dark, strange and often funny place.[37] She prefers to write about society and culture rather than relationships.[9] A major inspiration is the book "Women Who Run With Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype” by Clarissa Pinkola Estes.[4] Song topics include twists on Hans Christian Andersen's Little Match Girl and The Ugly Duckling, the Slavic witch Baba yaga, and the Inuit folk tale of the Skeleton Woman.[9]

As of February 2018, Bright has performed over 800 concerts, including festivals such as South by Southwest (SXSW), Dragon Con, MidPoint Music Festival, FloydFest, Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival, Savannah Stopover and Steampunk World's Fair. She’s performed shows with artists including Beats Antique, Voltaire, Adam Arcuragi, The Love Language, Pearl and the Beard, Holy Ghost Tent Revival, Rising Appalachia, Larkin Grimm and Lolo.[33] Bright collaborated and performed with the North Carolina Symphony on an arrangement of her song "Toy Hammer" for their 2010 New Year's Eve program at Meymandi Concert Hall in Raleigh, North Carolina.[5] Bright and the Silver Hands performed a live score to the classic silent horror movie The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari in October 2015 and October 2016.[38]

Albums

Their self-titled debut album, Crystal Bright & the Silver Hands, was released in June 2010 to reviews praising its "experimental vaudeville" and "twisted carnival folk."[36] Their second album, Muses & Bones, was released in March 2012.[39] It was mastered by Grammy Award-winning engineer Gene Paul (son of legendary guitarist/inventor Les paul) at G&J Audio.[33] It was described as "stunningly beautiful,"[21] filled with "power, grace and style,"[40] and "a record for freaks and thinkers, healers and hippies, the cool and the curious and for people who just want a little more."[29]

Their third album, "Live on All Hallows' Evening", was released in April 2013 and chronicles a collaborative performance with the Castaway Cabaret performance art troupe at The Blind Tiger in Greensboro, NC in October 2012.[41] Their fourth album, "The Absolute Elsewhere" was released in May 2015 with every song written to accompany a piece of art created by Rusty McDonald of DividingMe Photography.[42] The album was featured on the front page of AllMusic.com who described it as "wildly eclectic, engaging and creative" with "no shortage of twists and turns."[43]

Video

The video for "Drowned Out", from their second album, Muses & Bones, won the Best Overall Video award at the HearNC Music Video Festival at Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill, NC in December 2011[44] and won DrunkenMermaid’s Video Battle of the Bands in June 2012.[26] It was screened at the Indie Grits Film Festival as part of the Shuffle Magazine Showcase at the Nickelodeon Theatre in Columbia, SC in April 2012[45] and at The Carrboro Film Festival at the Carrboro Century Center in Carrboro, NC in November 2012.[46]

Following a private showing at DragonCon in Atlanta GA in late August 2018, the video for "Choke", from The Absolute Elsewhere, was released on October 23, 2018. Beginning in early 2016, the video, with a cast and crew of over 50 people, was filmed in 4 different locations in NC over the course of over 2 years. It features an alternate version of Crystal as a child, played by Rachael Skipper, wandering through an abandoned castle, Castle Mont Rouge, and surrounding field before encountering a mirror in a house of horrors and turning into the adult version of Crystal, played by Crystal herself. The adult Crystal is chased by inhabitants of the house as the song gets more intense at the end. The video for "Choke" was directed and produced by Ron Royster and filmed (and produced) by Craig Thieman.[47]

Members

Permanent members:

Current rotating members:

  • Jeremy Haire – Electric and nylon guitars
  • Robbie Link – Double bass, Cello
  • Rob DiMauro – Drums
  • Stefan DiMuzio - Violin, Keys, Synth
  • Omar Ruiz-Lopez - Violin

Footnotes
  1. Talkington, Fiona, "World on 3", BBC Radio 3, June 22, 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  2. Duncan, Charla, "Future looks Bright" Archived July 19, 2010, at Archive.today, News & Record (Greensboro), July 14, 2010. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  3. Stasio, Frank, "Crystal Bright & the Silver Hands" Archived October 27, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, WUNC's The State of Things, May 18, 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  4. Buchanan, Bruce, "Show blends music, performance art" Archived February 5, 2011, at Archive.today, News & Record (Greensboro), October 7, 2010. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  5. "Sessions At Studio B With Crystal Bright And The Silver Hands" Archived October 11, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, NBC's Sessions at Studio B, December 2010. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  6. Bright, Crystal, "Cakalak Thunder: The Meaning of Anarchy, Value, and Community in the Music of Greensboro's Protest Drum Corps" Archived December 12, 2012, at Archive.today, The Florida State University DigiNole Commons Virtual Repository for Electronic Scholarship, April 21, 2006. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  7. Kane, Rebecca, "My Interview with Crystal Bright", Coolgrrrls, December 1, 2011. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  8. Mellor, JG, "Crystal Bright and The Silver Hands announce new album, Muses and Bones" Archived October 27, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Shuffle Magazine, February 3, 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  9. Rainwater, Erin McClanahan, "Meet an Artist: Crystal Bright" Archived October 28, 2012, at Archive.today, News & Record (Greensboro), February 29, 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  10. Music Industry News Network . Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  11. Snyder, Ryan, "Best Of: The Music Endorsements" Archived July 14, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Yes! Weekly, March 7, 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  12. YES! Weekly "Best of the Triad 2014" Archived March 20, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, YES! Weekly, May 21, 2014. Retrieved 2016-02-04.
  13. YES! Weekly "The Triad's Best 2015" Archived February 19, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Yes! Weekly, May 6, 2015. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  14. Roullard, Ryan "Nimbit Artist of the Week: Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands!", PreSonus Blog, December 10, 2014. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  15. Band of the Day "Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands", Band of the Day, May 25, 2015. Retrieved 2016-02-04.
  16. Guerin, John, "Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands / Dirty Bourbon River Show (Motorco Garage Bar, Durham, 1/13/12)", How Strange it is to be Anything at All, January 14, 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  17. Fiander, Matthew, "Crystal Bright & the Silver Hands", PopMatters, March 27, 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  18. Wahl, Ashley, "Why the Caged Bird Sings", O'Henry Magazine, April–May 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  19. Johnson, James, "Crystal Bright and the Silver Hand", FEED Magazine, August 5, 2011. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  20. Elmer, Kailas, "Crystal Bright & the Silver Hands: Muses and Bones", Trebuchet Magazine, February 3, 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  21. Guerin, John, "Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands – Muses and Bones", How Strange it is to be Anything at All, June 4, 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  22. Ginsburg, Eric, "Local Talent" Archived July 12, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Yes! Weekly, January 25, 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  23. Crystal Bright Holistic Health, . Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  24. Hodges, Lauren, "Living Spectacles: Grey Pascal’s conceptual show goes 3D" Archived June 21, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, Encore Magazine, June 1, 2010. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  25. Pompliano, Alex, "Spiralling Art", Encore Magazine, October 2011. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  26. Develin, Sean, "The Winner of the 500 Dollar Battle of the Bands: Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands", Drunken Mermaid, June 8, 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  27. Guerin, John, "Bones and Lilies – Flowjo Family Circus w/ Crystal Bright & the Silver Hands (Carrboro, NC, 3/2/12)", How Strange it is to be Anything at All, March 17, 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  28. Dole, Christina, "Spotlight: Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands" Archived October 12, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Performer, March 1, 2011. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  29. Baxter, Scott, "Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands ‘Muses and Bones’" Archived October 27, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, AmericanaUK, April 17, 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  30. Mansfield, Mark, "Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands-Toy Hammer" Archived October 27, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Stereo Subversion, November 2, 2010. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  31. Parker, Chris. "Femme Feast expands to three clubs | Music Feature | Independent Weekly". =Indyweek.com. Retrieved September 2, 2012.
  32. Straight, Chase, "Crystal Bright & the Silver Hands – Especially Your Mother" Archived July 10, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Electric Panda Music, April 25, 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  33. Crystal Bright & the Silver Hands, . Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  34. Cohen, Jake, "Album Review: Crystal Bright & the Silver Hands – Muses and Bones", Consequence of Sound, April 10, 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  35. Eason, Jeff, "Dark and Dreamy", Mountain Times, April 26, 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  36. "Introducing...Crystal Bright & the Silver Hands", The Mad Mackerel, January 3, 2011. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  37. Ford, David, "Crystal Bright & the Silver Hands" Archived October 28, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, WFDD's Triad Arts Up Close, January 23, 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  38. Windsor, Mary "Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands present The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", The Carolinian, November 4, 2015. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  39. "Crystal Bright & the Silver Hands Prep Muses & Bones", The Mad Mackerel, February 5, 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  40. Worley, Jon, "Crystal Bright & the Silver Hands – Muses and Bones", Aiding & Abetting, March 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  41. YES! Weekly "Castaway Cabaret Presents: All Hallows' Evening" Archived March 1, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, YES! Weekly, October 10, 2012. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  42. 88.5 WFDD "Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands Release The Absolute Elsewhere", 88.5 WFDD, November 18, 2014. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  43. Steffen, Chris "Album Premiere: Crystal Bright & the Silver Hands Conjure Dark Cabaret on The Absolute Elsewhere", AllMusic.com, May 14, 2015. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  44. HearNC "HearNC Music Video Festival", HearNC Music Video Festival', May 25, 2015. Retrieved 2016-02-04.
  45. "Video picks from Shuffle's Indie Grits showcase" Archived May 4, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Shuffle Magazine, April 27, 2012. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
  46. "The Films", The Carrboro Film Festival. Retrieved 2012-10-09.
  47. crystal bright (October 23, 2018), Crystal Bright - Choke (Official Video), retrieved October 25, 2018
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