Somewhere, Over the Rainbow
As soon as the new perennials are purchased and the first pansies and violas are ready to be planted in the window boxes in spring, I begin to listen again in earnest to my favorite music (on my iPod this year!) as I work outside. Every few days I return to Eva Cassidy, a versatile artist whose work I first encountered only after she was no longer living. If you think you’ve listened to the ultimate “Somewhere, Over the Rainbow” just because you know the dialog of The Wizard of Oz by heart, you need to listen to Cassidy’s rendition. She seems to have been comfortable with jazz, folk, and gospel tunes, but for me her signature song has to be “Fields of Gold,” perhaps because of the poignancy of the opening and oft-repeated phrase, “You’ll remember me…” You can read more about her, listen to her singing “Ain’t No Sunshine,” or hear a ~10 minute NPR piece at http://www.npr.org/programs/asc/archives/asc14/index.html#cassidy . Several compilations of her work are available on CD from Amazon.