You Heard Her Here First

I had the great good luck to hear Joan Baez at the Club 47 in Cambridge in 1963 or 4.  Her voice had a crystalline purity that promised great things — and delivered.  Something of that same clean, bright vocal quality came from Eleanor Hammond around sunset this evening.  She stood on the rip-rap on the western border of the park, with a crew of filmmaker friends taking down a demo of her forthcoming leadoff single, due at the end of March on YouTube, Spotify, etc.  Despite the forbidding audio environment more suited for seagulls than human voices, Hammond made sweet music that the birds might envy.  I’ve photographed and made short recordings of a number of musicians in the park.  This one is special.  She’s currently a student at UC Berkeley.  She could go far.  Remember: you saw her here first!