MySpace is best when it’s showing off talent. Not just any talent, and definitely not the sort marked by a giant “approved by WalMart” advertisement, but the sort of talent that jumps forth and exceeds expectations. The value of the record industry is turned on its head when you pare back the layers of smarmy marketing, like eschewing the circus in favor of a troubadour act at the local cafe or pub.

Straight, no chaser, in drink terms, Maya Yianni is one of those to watch. I can’t get over the clarity of her voice.

Interesting that she includes videos of her idols on her page, perhaps for comparison. First is Ella Fitzgerald:

She also has Billie Holliday’s rendition of Strange Fruit, a poem by Abel Meeropol (1903 – 1986) written under the pseudonym Lewis Allan:

Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

The hidden irony of this particular song is that while Strange Fruit was popular after Holiday first sang it in a New York club in 1938, the major recording companies refused to produce it. Too controversial for her label, Columbia Records, a small record company (Commodore Records) finally published Holiday’s rendition. Today it is considered her signature song. A recent documentary tells the full story.

Another little bit of trivia is that a record company under the name Strange Fruit was formed in the UK the same year that the poet, schoolteacher and union activist Abel Meeropol passed away.