A cynical note here - I had never heard of Eva Cassidy until after her death. I guess it's part of the music industry grind - that someone with talent doesn't get much promotion until after they're dead. Now that he's dead, people are promoting Peter Bellamy's work; Jim Croce's record sales after his death far exceeded those while he was alive; guitarists are falling over themselves to record Nic Jones arrangements now that he's unable to play himself, etc, etc, etc. Where were Eva's friends in the music biz that are now pushing her work when she was alive?

All of these people were immensely talented in their lifetimes (or healthy days, in Nic's case) but overlooked or ignored. Is there a special cachet that accrues when a performer is no longer around above and beyond what his or her actual talents were? Perhaps its because the musician isn't here to have good days and bad days, transcendant performances and average ones and plain sloppy ones. People fixate on the melodrama in the "tragedy of untimely death" and lose a sense of perspective. I guess I just get weary of people gushing about the newest dead musical genius that we all somehow missed in their lifetime.

It's Monday, and I'm crabby.