Eva Cassiday Blew Me Away with her cover of Wayfaring Stranger....
It caught me by surprise to have my eyes already closed (because of work stress), sitting at my desk with a glass of bourbon. I was cleaning junk up and Wayfaring Stranger comes on by Eva Cassiday, and I had no idea for a moment who was singing the song. I was just listening without active listening.
Well, I was grooving to her movements on this and I thought her tone was big, warm and bold with gobs and gobs of soul. Wow. It woke me up from some stress to experience a moment. That's pretty great.
Is Eva Cassidy worth a deeper dive? I'm only superficially familiar with her and find her talented, if not a touch easy listening at times. I can dig that. Is her catalog diverse in sound scape and production?
At any rate, what a version of Wayfaring Stranger, and it just so happens to be a superb recording to boot!
I honestly didn’t know she was dead. Damn. Now I gotta listen to some Eva to cheer me up, but then it’ll just make me sad again that she is gone. As an aside, I worked at a huge record store back East in the 1980’s and a kid around 14 came up to me and asked me why there weren’t any newer records out for Janis Joplin. I had to break the news to him and the sad look on his face was just heart breaking. Thanks guys for doing the same, breaking my heart. |
@condosound -sorry to disappoint, but I'm not an active musician. Retired copyright lawyer from NYC, now living in Austin where I teach and write (about music, among other things). Thanks for asking. Bill |
@reubent , Good question. I use Roon. I built, per Roon's own directions (to the letter) a Roon Rock out of an Intel NUC CPU. The total cost with RAM is about $300--wait, we are in an inflationary market!--I think I paid about $300 or so. The Roon Rock, which just uses a fast little CPU box you buy. It's about 4" X 5". It runs in Linus (I think, but cannot recall). It's sole job is to run only two things--whatever it needs to boot up and communicate generally with you and Roon's software. That means it's incredibly fast and strong. It's the computer the size of 3 decks of cards (and an inch here or there) stacked on top of each other. So, How I heard the song by Eva C? When Roon finishes an album I play it will run Roon Radio and try to match the vibe of your recent plays. It allows you to have input if you want. I do spend a good bit of time listening to female vocalists. Some in jazz, some in pop/rock, or whatever genre. And I had been listening to something by Joni Mitchell and then something by Madison Cunningham, then something by Melody Bardot. That playlist of. mine ended and Roon put on songs, one of which was Wayfaring Stranger, by Eva Cassidy. The Roon software is pretty great. It is wonky here and there. |
@jbhiller - Got it. Roon discovery algorithm. Just proves the machines are smarter than the humans! It knows what you want... As a side note, I've discovered a ton of great music via Spotify's discover weekly algorithm. Oh, and via Radio Paradise... |
