FAME Review – “A Thing So Real”
Jul 09A review written for the Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange (FAME)
by Roberta B. Schwartz
It is always a pleasure to hear something new from Sandy Cash, who opens up a window to her adopted land of Israel. A native of Detroit, Cash has been living with her family in Israel for the past eighteen years.
A Thing So Real is Cash’s second studio recording. Like some of the best performers in the musical theater, she moves easily from the classic torch song to a comedic song and everything in between. She has the kind of voice – an alto with a lovely upper range – that is so easy to listen to that you won’t want to remove her CD from your player even after it’s ended. But more importantly, she writes great songs – both those that come from the heart and those that tell a story.
One of the recording’s best cuts is Giorgio Perlasca, which tells the moving story of an Italian Christian living in Budapest during World War II. To avoid being sent to a labor camp, he sought out the Spanish diplomat to Hungary, Angel Sanz-Briz, who was known for issuing life saving Spanish passports to persecuted Jews. Soon after, Sanz-Briz fled Hungary, but Perlasca took on his name and role in his stead, eventually saving 3,500 Hungarian Jews from deportation and death. Cash’s skilled storytelling and delivery bring it to life.
Songs of love and family abound. The opening tune, This Love is Only for You, is a beautiful love song. Stranger With One Heart speaks to the growing child within. But it is Cash’s sense of humor that draws us in every time. In The Boy Next Door she finds a pied piper for her kids who leaves her time for herself – to chat with girlfriends and cuss all she wants. Cash pokes fun at her therapist abandoning her for a summer vacation in The Madlibs Song, based on the book of fill-in-the-blanks exercises popular in the Sixties. It will leave you laughing and perhaps identifying with the songwriter’s plight. Survival of the Fittest plays with Darwin’s theory of evolution with great fun and wit. I love this song!
It is clear from her music that Sandy Cash lives a life full of heart and love, and a lot of humor. Unlike many of her peers, there is something for everyone in her music. There is a universality in her style and in her message that is so appealing that it crosses all kinds of barriers. Who would have guessed that a child of Detroit, living a life in a place of continuing conflict as an adult, would know so much and still have a heart and a voice that speaks to all of us. It is good to laugh, to think and to love along with Sandy Cash. May she continue bringing her music to us for many years to come!
Copyright 2004, Peterborough Folk Music Society and Roberta B. Schwartz.