Eva Cassidy

Eva Cassidy was just a little more than six months younger than me.  She died in 1996. I didn’t learn of her until 2003.

We were on a Boy Scout summer camp trip – heading from north Texas toward the Sangre de Cristo mountains of New Mexico.  We stopped in Tucumcari, NM for the night, and one of the other adult leaders and I were chatting about music and musical influences.  I don’t recall how we got to Eva Cassidy, but I remember him asking if I knew about her music.  I did not.

He pulled out his laptop computer and played for me her cover of Sting’s song Fields of Gold.  I listened and I wept.  I did not care much for Sting’s arrangement and recording of the song, but Eva Cassidy’s rendition was so full of depth and spirit, I could not contain my own emotional response.

Her rendition of Fields of Gold is something I listen to when I need a spiritual lift – I still have difficulty controlling my tears when I hear it.

Stupid cancer took her away.  Even though I never knew her while she was around, I miss her.