Monday 22 August 2011

Monday music .......... the virtual jukebox.

It’s probably a couple of months since I’ve listened to Eva Cassidy, but we had some friends for dinner on Friday and one wondered whether one of the reasons why her music was popular was that she had passed away at a young age. Eva Cassidy died in 1996, before she was recognised outside of her local area around Washington D.C, and her back story is well documented. We will never know for certain whether her early death increased her popularity, but we bought her music because we liked the bluesy/jazzy feel to the arrangements and her pure, clear voice.

We have six of her albums in our collection, so I could have chosen almost any of her songs for the jukebox. The Eva Cassidy track on YouTube with the most (over 7 million) hits is Songbird, so I’ll go with popular opinion ……


I love her voice and feel it eclipses the Christine McVie original version.

I am very uneasy about the ‘posthumous duets’ (e.g. with Michael Bolton, Katie Melua and others) which are being put together, just because the technology exists to do it. Take a look at this clip from YouTube -


What do you think?

8 comments:

  1. This time I have had it, I have no Eva Cassidy CD's to listen to so I will just have to guess what her voice is like :-) Diane

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  2. I thought she was amazing the first time I heard her, but found it wore off and I now find her rather schmaltzy. Have you heard the Hawaiian (also died tragically young)Iz Kamakawiwo'ole. His 'Somewhere over the Rainbow' has been played endlessly here, but I still find beautiful.

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  3. Hi Susan,

    I am less keen on the 'over the rainbow' type tracks of Eva Cassidy.

    I listened to Iz and it is beautiful.

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  4. I'm afraid that Iz Kamakawiwo'ole's version of Somewhere over the Rainbow is the reason why we switched off one French radio station we used to listen to. It was obviously on a loop and indeed it nearly sent me loopy! It may not be cool to admit it in these 'strange times' but Eva Cassidy for me any day. The sheer clarity of pitch and tonal quality is faultless. Thanks Gaynor for flagging Songbird up. It rightly deserves revisiting.

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  5. Colin and Elizabeth,

    I agree, next time you are in the area (school holiday time only - unfortunately) you must call in and we'll listen together!

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  6. I do not like the idea of posthumous duets either!

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  7. Hi LindyLou,

    I'm a real fan of live music, warts and all, and there is no way that a posthumous duet could ever be reproduced live!

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  8. She's wonderful Gaynor. This version is very superior. Thanks for reminding me of it.

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