{{short description|American fife player}} {{BLP sources|date=May 2021}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2014}} {{Infobox musical artist | name = Shardé Thomas | image = | caption = | image_size = | landscape = | birth_name = | alias = | birth_date = {{Birth month and age|1990|01}} | birth_place = Coldwater, Mississippi, United States | death_date = | death_place = | genre = {{hlist|Fife and drum|delta blues}} | occupation = {{hlist|Musician|singer}} | instrument = {{hlist|Fife|vocals|drums|percussion|piano|keyboards}} | years_active = 2003–present | label = | website = | notable instruments = }}
'''Shardé Thomas''' (born January 1990, Coldwater, Mississippi, United States),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://digital.livingblues.comhttps//digital.livingblues.com/articles/sharde-thomas-mallory|title=Living Blues Living Blues #293: Sharde Thomas-Mallory|website=Digital.livingblues.comhttps|access-date=November 10, 2025}}</ref> is an American fife player in the vanishing American fife and drum blues tradition. She is the granddaughter of Othar Turner, who founded the Rising Star Fife and Drum Band, and cousin to bandmate Andre Turner Evans.<ref>{{cite news|last=Pareles|first=Jon|title=Othar Turner, Mississippi Master of the Fife, Is Dead at 94|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/01/arts/othar-turner-mississippi-master-of-the-fife-is-dead-at-94.html|accessdate=April 29, 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|date=March 1, 2003}}</ref> She plays a homemade cane fife.
==Career== Martin Scorsese featured her grandfather, Othar Turner, in the 2003 PBS mini-series, ''The Blues'', as a link between African rhythms and American blues. This concept was continued on the 2003 album ''Mississippi to Mali'' by Corey Harris. The album was dedicated to Turner, who died a week before he was scheduled to record for the album. Thomas, then 12 years old, filled in for the recording sessions.
In 2003, her band was at South by Southwest Music Festival.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Dean|first=Katie|title=Go On, Say the Unpopular Thing|url=https://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/news/2004/03/62749|magazine=Wired|accessdate=April 29, 2013}}</ref> In 2008, she performed in "The Heritage Project" in New York City,<ref>{{cite news|last=La Rocco|first=Claudia|title=Telling Stories in Many Shades of Delta Blue|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/arts/dance/25laro.html?_r=0|accessdate=April 29, 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|date=May 25, 2008}}</ref> and in 2009, at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.<ref>{{cite web|last=MacCash|first=Doug|title=Sharde Thomas, Rising Star Fife and Drum at Jazz Fest Blues Tent|url=http://www.nola.com/jazzfest/index.ssf/2009/04/time_warp_sharde_thomas_and_th.html|work=The Times-Picayune|accessdate=April 29, 2013|date=April 25, 2009}}</ref>
==Discography== *2003: ''Goin' Over The Hill'' – Willy Deville Acoustic Trio *2003: ''Mississippi To Mali'' *2010: ''Hill Country Hoodoo'' – The Jake Leg Stompers *2010: ''What Do I Do?'' (CD Baby)
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/12/arts/blues-review-transporting-delta-tunes-from-the-farm-to-the-city.html ''Blues Review''; Transporting Delta Tunes From the Farm To the City]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Sharde}} Category:1990 births Category:Living people Category:African-American women songwriters Category:Blues musicians from Mississippi Category:Delta blues musicians Category:American blues singer-songwriters Category:Fife players Category:21st-century African-American women singers Category:21st-century American women singers Category:21st-century American flautists