?!

I know I sure hadn’t until very recently. I was casually enjoying my latest “chick rock” radio station on Pandora, and her version of Sting’s “Fields of Gold” began to play. I was struck by her absolutely wonderful voice, and decided to learn and hear more.

I first read through her biographical summary there on Pandora and found out that her story was quite a tragedy. First, she struggled with stage fright and thus had a difficult time getting herself noticed by people from the music industry. Then, perhaps due to poor management, record companies wouldn’t sign her up because she always presenter herself as a type of Jill-of-all-Genres. And if that wasn’t enough, right before she had a chance to make it big, she discovered that she had cancer all over her body, which led to a very abrupt end to her life.

Most of her music has only been released after her passing, and much of it seems to have been recorded live. I went out and downloaded one of her albums, which REALLY sounds like a live recording, and it is so good. It is a really neat blend of pop and jazz, and, as far as I can tell, it is mostly her covering songs from other artists. However, when a person “covers” a song by recreating it as their own I really admire their ability to do so. Such is the case with her rendition of “Over The Rainbow.” It is absolutely amazing. I’ve already posted it over at my Musicality site, so here is a link to listen to it there.

Wow.