SARA SYMS

Visionary singer-songwriter Sara Syms creates a journey in sound and spirit with her upcoming album, The Darkest Light. The album, produced by Ari Teitel of the Mardi Gras Indian funk band Cha Wa, reflects the diversity of today’s New Orleans sound, which embraces everything from traditional jazz, soul, gospel, and blues to the contemporary, genre-blending work of Lucinda Williams and the ambient soundscapes of Daniel Lanois. The songstress essays the duality of life: the sweet and the sour, the hard and the tender, and, of course, the emotions in the title of her homecoming release, The Darkest Light. “The past two years we have shared a collective struggle of crippling fear, the pandemic, political polarization and catastrophic unknowns. This album invites people to acknowledge those challenges—no matter how dire—and to reflect on the love that’s on the other side of fear, that we all share in our souls.” It is, indeed, a potent message for the times.