Cassie's Clips: Watch Cassie Cover Ruth B's "Lost Boy" and The Wizard of Oz's "Over The Rainbow" in Second Life

Here's a treat as we wind down for the weekend: NWN video correspondent Cassie Middles covering Ruth B's massive pop hit "Lost Boy", an incredibly difficult song in terms of range and phrasing. But Cassie is quite literally a pro -- a trained soprano, which makes her singing this contralto/tenor song even more difficult -- but at my begging, she's getting back into in-world performances like this. 

"The song reminds me a bit of Second Life, funnily enough," she tells me. "A place where you can escape reality and go somewhere you feel welcome and loved."

Cassie hasn't sung professionally for over a decade, but when she did, she performed with the Orlando opera company, the Bob Carr Theater, and Rollins College. (Watch her cover "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", which fits her vocal range closer, below.) "I'm definitely nowhere near how I was years ago," she allows. "I think I need to practice again or get a vocal coach." Hopefully that means we'll get more songs from her in the future.

Here's how she created the Second Life machinima and merged it with her vocals:

"In the video there's two scenes. One is in a garden and one is in an ethereal place. Those were the scenes I used to represent Neverland. I dressed up as John Darling from Peter Pan for [the machinima]. My boyfriend helped me record the newest audio to make it sound more crisp, and I just merged it in Photoshop in the audio section."

 

And as promised, here's an older cover where she's all decked out like Judy Garland:

 

Much more on Cassie's YouTube channel - and don't forget to subscribe!