Thursday, September 09, 2004

My first Eva Cassidy CD

Eva Cassidy's story is an ironic paradox of great proportions. For most people, death is their final conqueror. For Eva Cassidy, death became her catapult to artistic immortality. Instead of causing her to be forgotten, it made her not only internationally known, but positively unforgettable. She has become a legend. What is usually a curse has turned out, in spite of itself, to be a blessing to the world. This time death has freed the way for the world to become a better place through her discovery.


My First Eva CD

Let me tell you about the first Eva Cassidy CD I bought. A 30 minute TV documentary about her was shown one evening. I was so touched and impressed by it that I said, "I've just got to buy her music."

The next day after work I went to a local music shop and was lucky enough to find the only CD of hers that they had. It was the one called "Imagine" (she sings Lennon's classic on it). I then took it home and did what I like to do with a new CD - sit down and read the insert while listening to it. I usually read the lyrics and descriptions, or whatever is written there.

Well, I was sitting at the dining room table with my wife sitting on the other side, and we listened while I read to myself. Suddenly, while the last song was playing, she looked at me and said: "Are you crying?", and then I startled her by laughing through my tears. It was an odd "happening", and here's why:

The last song is the old Irish ( although not originating in Ireland ) song "Danny Boy". It's a song of one who is going to die, and her lover will come to her grave. Well, Eva Cassidy also died, and her story is very heartwrenching. While having just read her story, and then listening to her singing those words so beautifully and sensitively, my eyes became moist, and my soul was really moved. Then while I was also reading the short comment on the song, my wife asked her question, and I started laughing. Why? Well, it was really a coincidence that everything coincided so perfectly. Here is what I read at the moment my wife spoke:

"..... and Eva's "enough to make a grown man cry" rendition of the traditional Danny Boy to close the album."

Bingo! I wasn't the only man that had experienced the same thing when hearing her sing that song. And it's not the only one that can do that. There are a few other songs that are also in that category. Her rendition of "Over the Rainbow" is already becoming a classic in some circles, so some people sing the original Judy Garland version, and others sing the Eva Cassidy version.

Other songs I just love:

Fields of Gold
Oh, Had I a Golden Thread
I Know You By Heart
Fever
Tennessee Waltz
Cheek to Cheek
Fine and Mellow
True Colours
You Take My Breath Away
I Wandered By a Brookside


Search: Eva Cassidy


I'll no doubt write more about Eva later. Her music is very inspiring. I encourage you to go out and buy her music. You won't regret it!

Please return to (and link to) this blog often.


This blog is an affiliate site of Confessions of a Quackbuster & The Quack-Files