Extremely sad news. Undeniably one of the greatest artists ever to come out of our extraordinarily fertile music scene. The news is, alas, not totally unexpected, as news has floated out of her family members for some time regarding the precarious state of her health, even as she kept performing as she loved to do.

The cluelessly vile comments on that Free Press article are a view into the ugly side of our area though, and a reminder never to read such comments sections.