Katharine McPhee's Over The Rainbow

I checked out a couple of her clips on YouTube. Hadn't actually heard her
sing before that I'm aware of.

She has a nice voice, though she's yet another practicioner of all this
melisma/arpeggiating stuff that seems to have become a ubiquitous part of
pop vocal technique.

One of the clips I saw was her performing Over The Rainbow on the Today
Show. Nice enough treatment of the song, but I guess I'd be hard pressed to
be worked up over anyone else doing it after hearing the late Eva Cassidy's
take on it.

daveparks_00...

Thanks for the info - I'd not heard Cassidy's take on it, what an
elegant performance. That's the style McPhee *should* have used, IMO.
Found the YouTube version here;

I also really enjoyed Eva's performance of "Honeysuckle Rose";

fmomoon...

I tend for forget what a magnificent and sweet voice Cassidy had. Sadly,
she died far too young. Thank you for posting this, Dave.

John Weatherly...

She's nothing special. Off Broadway is where she'll probably end up.

With some "proper" training and maturity, McPhee could develop into a
really impressive performer - unfortunately I've not seen much during
the AI season or after, that leads me to believe she'll pursue or
receive that training.

James...

I do notice McPhee seems to take some cues from Eva's version.

fmomoon...

We've talked quite a bit about her in this group, not surprisingly. What
you've said is supported in this group. She is talented and lovely, no
doubt, but I don't think I'm convinced her future is in pop music. She was
trained fairly well by her mother, who was a musical theatre performer (pro
tours, etc.) and is now doing caberet. OTR was, in my opinion, the best
thing she did on AI and is now released in a single.

Mickey...

She admits as much.

The Other Mickey