9-23-13<\/p>\n
A theme song of cynics \u2013 there are many; many cynics and many are their themes \u2013 is the famous sentiment written by Shakespeare: \u201cThe evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones\u201d (Julius Caesar, Act 3, i). But the hopeful among us must see that this is honored in the breach, that the exception proves the rule. We must not merely be convinced that fights for righteousness and honor and creative expression are worth the fight in this difficult life\u2026 but that the fight ITSELF, not only the goal, is worthy.<\/p>\n
Cynicism is challenged by uncountable examples of service and sacrifice by kind souls, by acts of charity, a word whose original meaning is \u201clove.\u201d Challenged in the over-arching sense by the work of weary toilers in the fields who sometimes are bent but never broken. And in the very personal examples of artists who die without ever knowing the effect their work eventually has on other people. There are stories we all know from history.<\/p>\n
We think of van Gogh; of Poe; of the composer Schubert and the novelist John Kennedy Toole\u2026 and of Eva Cassidy.<\/p>\n
Some serious critics have called Eva the greatest American vocalist. Do you ask, \u201cWho?\u201d Her relatively sparse playlist has swept record charts around the world. Some of the era\u2019s greatest singers and producers have attested to her uniqueness. The acclaim and sales have all come years after she died. Eva was born in Washington DC in 1963. Self- (and dad-) taught on several instruments, she listened to the great performers of several genres she rapidly mastered herself: blues, jazz, gospel, country, pop standards. <\/p>\n
Eva played in several clubs in the Washington area. A college town, DC is replete with jazz clubs, music venues, performance clubs. As a student there myself in ancient times, I was privileged to enjoy, in places like the Cellar Door, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, and Randy Scruggs before they were nationally famous. Later, Eva Cassidy attracted a local following and made a few CDs, but her fame was fairly restricted to the District. Pros and record execs who heard her music were astonished, but many of them simply did not know in which category to place her. All of them later regretted their short-sightedness. Her voice was angelic (if angels were to sing the blues); her interpretations were miraculously emotional; her guitar style was unique.<\/p>\n
When she was 30 she had a malignant tumor removed from her neck. Three years later she was dead, the melanoma having survived within her body, spread to bones and lungs. After her diagnosis (three to five months to live, no hope of survival) she returned once more to her stage of choice, DC\u2019s Blues Alley, and sang \u201cWhat a Wonderful World.\u201d That choice, as much as hearing her music, confirms what a wonderful person, not merely a musical talent, Eva Cassidy was. <\/p>\n
But it was five full years after her death before the world really heard about her, and heard her. A stray CD made its way the BBC Radio studios in London. Airplay on a morning show lit up the proverbial switchboard. Fast-forward this story to Number One on British record charts; five CDs in the Top 150; continuing presence in England and Ireland, especially, but also Germany, Scandinavia, Switzerland, and Australia\u2026 and, finally, America; and sales exceeding 10-million CDs.<\/p>\n
It is easy to lapse (thusly) into numbers and statistics. But it was Eva Cassidy\u2019s astonishing talent, and her effect on listeners, that is the story. She had a gift for making mundane lyrics special, for discovering spiritual nuances in standard love songs, for making happy tunes blues-y and turning sad ballads hopeful. <\/p>\n
That her \u201csuccess\u201d is posthumous is ironic at least. Yet once we take account of life\u2019s vicissitudes, we should take heart. The good that we may do DOES live on \u201cafter our bones are interred.\u201d When we do the Lord\u2019s work, sharing hope and sunshine, we are eager to see the \u201cseeds\u201d we plant take root and bloom. But we don\u2019t always know if, or when, it will happen. Mostly, we cannot know. As servants of the Word, it really is the Holy Spirit\u2019s job to \u201cclose the deals,\u201d and we should resist the temptation of pride if we are too concerned with the seeds we plant. We can plant those seeds; we can even cultivate; but only God can make life grow.<\/p>\n
In fact there is a legitimate spiritual satisfaction in not knowing these details. When writers, artists, singers, songwriters, poets, and all people graced with God\u2019s creativity set their works out (as it were) like baby Moses in a basket, among the reeds and into unknown waters, we don\u2019t know who will discover them. But, trusting the God whom we serve by serving our fellow men and women, untold numbers of people, and their families after them, may be profoundly touched. Even if one person\u2019s spirit responds, we have done our jobs. <\/p>\n
If we, any of us, exercise the talents wherewith we have been graced, if we see our lives as parts of the cultural continuum of civilization, just as we are woven with the scarlet threads of redemption, then some of us might be the next van Goghs, Poes, Schuberts, Tooles, and Eva Cassidys. And be content that the value is in the working and the works, not the accolades of the world. And the rest of us? We can feel blessed that we are witnesses of these great talents.<\/p>\n
Remember the Yogi Berra quotation, \u201cIt ain\u2019t over till it\u2019s over\u201d? Memo to Yogi: sometimes it only BEGINS when it\u2019s \u201cover.\u201d The theme song of THAT truth is sung by Eva Cassidy.<\/p>\n
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One of the only videos of Eva Cassidy singing is an amateur camcorder capture of her and her guitar at Blues Alley. It often brings tears to viewers\u2019 eyes for the unique interpretation and commonly untapped meanings from a pop standard previously considered without spiritual depth. \u201cSomewhere Over the Rainbow\u201d was recorded the year of Eva\u2019s death, 1996. I commend this performance to you, and its compelling whisper to your soul: \u201cSomewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue, and the dreams that you dare to dream, really do come true. \u2026 If happy little bluebirds fly above the rainbow, why, oh why, can’t I?\u201d When Eva sang, she made it a spiritually rhetorical question: We can.<\/p>\n