DESCRIPTION:
From the studio album "Beautiful", released in 2004, and available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/xavierc.

REVIEWS
"Put simply, it makes my heart happy..."
This is the first album i've heard in a long while where I fell in love with every track. It heals every part of my broken heart.. -Alisa Raymond

"A series of open windows..." cassendre xavier's music is a series of open windows that have bright vibrant shutters, deep sills, and stained glass that play with sunlight in such a marvelous way. --sarahbean

"Hooks listeners..."
In "Beautiful", Xavier touts the benefits of hooking listeners with songs they already know. Her last studio album, 2004's Beautiful, included the Ewan MacColl standard "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," Sheryl Crow's "Strong Enough" and Julie Miller's "All My Tears." -M.J. Fine, Philadelphia City Paper

For lots more "beautiful" reviews of Beautiful, please visit http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/xavierc!

LYRICS
And when I saw him there
Black jeans and bass in hand, he
stilled me
With one stroke of his thumb
the memories came slowly
Of times long since passed
Of feelings sad and sexy
Sad

It looks like a guitar
but what he's holding is
a woman
They look like strings
but what he's playing is painjoy
They sound like stories
but what he's singing is history
Her story
My understanding grows

I come here every week
I come so I can speak and I'm
heard here
I come here to be fed
I come as I am led by my
Goddess
Who brings to me my muse
and love that I can use and learn from
I
learn from
I learn from you

I've had my fix
My weekly fix of those
fingers
I wonder now how long
until I can feel them
The way I feel
The way I feel when he
plays me
Or that guitar
Or that guitar
Or his guitar
© Copyright 2004 by Cassendre Xavier. (p) Cassendre Xavier Unlimited Music (ASCAP). All rights reserved. www.cassendrexavier.com

BACKSTORY:
So, it was the early 2000s, I was a full-time self-employed artist (finally!) and I decided to learn to play the blues and I was also in the mood for a new boyfriend. I went to South Street Blues around 20th & South and accomplished both. B.O.G., the persun I wrote this song about, was not the lover. He was a married bassist who affected me the way the song says. He also hosted the open mic series there. There, I met and watched P.M. Eaton (Phunkyman) play a lot, and was really inspired by his funky rock guitar style and scorchin' solos. My friend, jazz poet and sax & flute player Elliott Levin was there often, too, and once he brought a friend of his. This friend was a talk, dark, very serious looking Italian actor and blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and harmonica player. He played there sometimes, and brought his friend Ancestor Goldsky who I saw play the best drum solo I've ever seen in my life. The Actor started calling me "Kid", and I started going to his rehearsals, both for his theater plays and his blues band. I was completely enthralled and entranced not only by him but by being in his world of art. I fell for him hard. He was a Piscean and his stories were so beautiful and real.
The line in this song where I say "he brings to me my muse, and love that I can use and can learn from", I mean that he, B.O.G., through his event and the music it brought me, attracted The Actor to me. The Actor became my muse. I was more creatively productive in the few months I lived with him (Oh, heah, that part comes later!), than I was in any other relationship before or since.
How I came to live with him was as I was hanging out with him, I learned that he tended to become romantically involved with his leading ladies. I was already sweet on him and he probably felt something too, but neither of us made a direct move, although it already looked to other people like we were seeing each other, and it certainly felt like it to me.
On this particular night, he was going to have the first night of a play in which there's a leading lady. I didn't want to let him have to deal with any temptation to enjoy the company of any other female after the play besides me.
So, I donned a sexy outfit I wore often at the time, black halter top with sheer lace blouse, mini skirt, fishnet garter stockings, and high heels. Prior to that, he'd only seen me in tie-dyed tee shirts, jeans, and my steel-toe motorcycle boots.
I believe the look made an impression, because as we sat at the bar at the end of the play, he said to me, "So, you wanna go home?" Although he didn't end that sentence, "..with me," my immediate understanding was "Our home," because I'd hung out with him before at his place. This time, I just didn't leave.
Thanks, B.O.G. Your presence brought me a love I'll never forget, plus two songs, two chapbooks, and stories that I'll enjoy telling for a long, long time.
--Cassendre Xavier