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The music of Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands is not easily pigeon-holed. From gypsy jazz, to klezmer rave-ups, to Danny Elfman-esque gothic soundscapes, the music forges a dark yet whimsical path.
— Eddie Garcia, 88.5 WFDD-NPR

BIO

Award winning singer/songwriter, ethnomusicologist, composer, multi-instrumentalist, Crystal Bright, has played over 1000 shows from Canada to Austin, and New Orleans to Seattle and Thailand the past 8 years sharing the stage with the likes of Beats Antique, Abney Park, Aurelio Voltaire, The Love Language, Rising Appalachia, Larkin Grimm, Pearl and the Beard, and many more.  Bright performed with the North Carolina Symphony in 2011 on an arrangement of her song "Toy Hammer," and has performed at various festivals around the country (SXSW, Savannah Stopover, FloydFest, DragonCon, LEAF, Midpoint Music Fest, The Steampunk World's Fair, The International Steampunk Symposium, Shakori Hills, and many others.) She took Runner Up for On the Rise at Floydfest 2013 for returning sets in 2014 and 2015, and was named Best Singer in 2012, Best Songwriter in 2014, and Best Musician in the Triad in 2015 by Greensboro's Yes Weekly.

Bright brings an incredible variety of European and American world music influences, instruments (including accordion, piano, musical saw, Taiko drum, adungu, and various others), musicality, and arrangements intertwining huge soaring operatic vocals to a moving indie rock sound that are marked by incredible live performances.

Her visual collaborative album with DividingMe Photography, The Absolute Elsewhere (Nov. 2014), and Muses and Bones (2012) have both received glowing reviews in the US & Europe, as well as radio airplay in the US, UK, & Canada, including NPR and BBC appearances.

The most recent album, Staring at the Sun, recorded with Mitch Easter at the legendary Fidelitorium studio, takes you on a sonic journey through the evolution of her genre-spanning sound.

RIYL: Kate Bush, Dresden Dolls, Beirut, Tom Waits, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Decemberists, Danny Elfman/Tim Burton, Yann Tiersen, folktales, ethnomusicology, musical saws, and accordions. 

PRESS/MEDIA

Wildly eclectic, engaging and creative, the new album from Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands takes inspiration from myriad sources for a rather cinematic listening experience. From the gypsy funeral procession atmosphere of opener “The End” to the Latin-flavored “Bajando La Luna” and the wounded “Torment,” there’s no shortage of twists and turns across the album’s 13 tracks.
— All Music
It’s like Enya woke up in a vaudevillian nightmare wonderland.
— Chris Haire, Charleston City Paper
The music here doesn’t rely on local geography – or, to be more accurate, any one geography. Swirling carnival waltzes and blaring border canciónes inhabit the same folk-lore turf as Bright’s noir-ish forest-friendly narratives, which lean toward topics surrounding the pagan and mystical side of feminine power.
— JG Mellor, Shuffle Magazine
Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands toe a fascinating line, making for either an uncommonly dignified circus sideshow or a melodramatic, gorgeous Eastern European street performance. Think Tori Amos with Tom Waits’ sense of humor, or maybe a Tim Burton film with the steampunk quotient maxed.
— Corbie Hill, Independent Weekly
Crystal Bright is all about theater and art, and that makes her music slightly less easy to pigeonhole and more esoteric in its nature. Here she is with “Drowned Out,” - a pleasant kind of bonkers.
— Fiona Talkington, BBC Radio 3
Jane Siberry and Danny Elfman record a Gypsy Folk soundtrack to a Slavic noir detective movie starring Tom Waits as the gumshoe and Kate Bush as the dame.
— Midpoint Music Fest
Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands supply unpredictable, jazzy exaltations.
— Chris Powers, Paste Magazine
It’s got an old-time swing, elements of different strains of European folk, but it also has its own rollicking spectacle, and in the middle of it is the narcotic, dramatic air of Bright’s vocals. Bright renders real emotion, equal parts isolation, disappointment, and budding hope, out of sounds that seem mystical, even otherworldly...
— Matthew Fiander, Pop Matters
Hmmm…so this is what it would sound like if Kate Bush were to genetically fuse with Danny Elfman and Dresden Dolls in some strange biological experiment.
— Mark Mansfield, Stereo Subversion

MUSIC

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VIDEOS

Fidelitorium Recording Studio

Live at the Cat’s Cradle

Bajando La Luna - Live

First Official Video

Live at Floyd Fest

Newest Official Video (Warning it’s creepy)

Fidelitorium Recording Session

Official Video - Especially Your Mother

CALENDAR

See Past shows HERE