Brandon Scott (from YouTube channel ‘That’s Not Acting’) explains what makes Eva Cassidy’s ‘Over The Rainbow’ so beautiful and strong:
‘I’m really excited to jump into this. It’s already lovely. Look at the expression on her face. This song means something to her. It’s definitely beautiful and it feels very relatable. It’s not overproduced, there’s nothing big and flashy happening, I could be sitting at a local pub local bar sipping on my drink with a few good friends around watching this on any given Friday or Saturday night. It feels like home in a way. The fact that it’s ‘Over The Rainbow’ which is such a recognizable song certainly probably helps that aesthetic but she’s just doing a lovely job. I’m really enjoying the way she is drawing out these straight notes, holding the vibrato off until the right moments and everything in this seems like it’s being done very intentionally.’
‘I can see that she has some jazz influence, there seems to be some improvisation happening. She knows her instrument, she knows what it can do, she knows what sounds good and what sounds create what feelings and what impressions and she seems to be using it very effectively to communicate whatever this is. Just look at her face, there is something absolutely tangibly connected inside of her to this song to the lyrics. Maybe a memory, maybe an event in her life that she’s linked to this sort of hopeful aspiring sort of a feeling that she’s just she’s attached it to this song. She’s filled this moment with that and she’s sharing it with us. It’s beautiful.’
‘She’s communicating with that guitar, she’s been doing this the whole time. So often in music we had the opportunity to feel and hear something that is unique to a moment. This is an instance when it feels like when it’s obvious that what she’s saying and the word she’s singing aren’t necessarily the same thing. What she’s actually saying is not limited by the dictionary definition of the words that she’s speaking. The words that are actually coming out of her mouth, that what she’s communicating goes deeper than that. It’s bigger than that you can see in hopes and dreams and wants and wishes and you can feel it all just peeling off of her and I think that kind of connection is what really inspires that that sort of passion and commitment to an artist that the desire to hear more from them the desire to get to know them better and to hear what they had to say because what they had to say wasn’t simply the words that were written on a music sheet. What they had to say was deeper than that. It was larger. It was more about the human experience.’
‘it’s beautiful and from the beginning I maybe didn’t see it as clearly but as she goes on the more she sings the more I’m drawn in and the more it feels like she’s telling me her story. Really I cannot tell you how much we all need each other’s stories. We need to share in each other. It’s a part of what makes us human and that’s one of the things that music is very good at. Oh yeah that was gorgeous, all the holding out that straight tone for as long as she can. She broke for just a moment, that little crack was lovely. That was Eva Cassidy singing ‘Over The Rainbow’. A lovely, performance it was really beautiful!’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BArA4wYjtlc
A tragedy has befallen Brandon Scott, who gave this wonderfull reaction to Eva’s performance of ‘Over The Rainbow’. Please help him and his family!
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