Today I'm listening to Eva Cassidy

[DavidCM]

Just uncovered this track that I had never heard before and It was written by Doug MacLeod(a few of his other tracks posted previously)..The attached quote is interesting..

From an interview with Doug MacLeod, who wrote Nightbird. Interviewer: Your songs have been recorded by many artists, so which are your favorite interpretations? Doug: I have a couple of favorites. One was Eva Cassidy’s version of Nightbird. That song is about a prostitute, a prostitute that I used to live with who really watched out for me. I have no idea if Eva Cassidy knew what that song was about and I never heard it until my wife played it for me during a drive to Los Angeles from San Luis Obispo. I’m a huge baseball fan and my team, the Cardinals from St Louis, were playing the Dodgers and I wanted to listen to the game. My wife said “I got something for you to hear”, and I said, “But the Cardinals are on” and she said “This is more important than the Cardinals” and she put this CD on of Eva Cassidy. I tell you, it moved me so much, I pulled over to the side of the road and I was weeping. I have never done that song again. When people ask me to do Nightbird, I tell them that if they want to hear THE version, she is the one to listen to. And then of course she died before I got a chance to meet her to ask her how she interpreted it like that.

By way of contrast here's the original --(special 2 for 1 offer )

 

 

[LenT]

My thanks to you David for finding this track by Eva Cassidy.  It’s many years since I played my copy of Songbird and I shall now hunt it out and remind myself of what a uniquely evocative voice she had.

Such a sad loss at an early age.  ☹️

[DavidCM]

agreed.

It's from a double album called "Nightbird" some of her old ,well known tracks and quite a few more obscure tracks that are new( to me).Recommended.Cd  seems in low supply-I bought it on download.

[Bluesman]

The voice of an angel She was taken from us so young. It was Terry Wogan that got her name around the UK.

[DavidCM]

Yes,one of the best,if not the best female singers - ever.I remember Terry promoting her years ago..still miss his sense of humour in the mornings..I don't know what he had in his tea but it must have been good.