One night in May of 2001 in a small B&B in rural France my wife and I were chatting in front of an open-hearth fireplace with the English expat owners. Five years earlier Ian, a long haul lorry driver, and his wife, Anne, a caterer, decided to chuck it all, leave the UK, and buy a little gite/B&B in France. In the course of our conversation Ian and I discovered that we had shared interests in guitars and contemporary folk music. Later in the evening he asked me if I knew Eva Cassidy’s music? He was shocked when I told him I didn’t. “She’s one of the best singers I’ve ever heard – and she’s American. I can’t believe you don’t know her.” He almost ran to get her CD and play it for us.
