On a different note for today’s musical selection, we offer the voice of Eva Cassidy (1963 – 1996), who lived and performed in her native Washington, DC area in relative obscurity, dying young from cancer, and only became known after her death. Her voice is like few in her genre, and her genre itself difficult to define, for she sang in many different styles.
See what you think. Here’s one of my own favorite songs, the poem ‘My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose‘, by the Scottish bard Rabbie Burns in 1794, put to a traditional Scotch melody.
The listener may compare this more traditional rendition by Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker:
And here is an American favorite, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, written for the 1939 film Wizard of Oz, the melody by Harold Arlen and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg, and originally sung by Judy Garland:
For comparison, here is Miss Garland’s original:
