When the pandemic shut down venues and isolated patients from their families, singer-songwriter Emily Cavanagh responded with a simple question: Does anyone need a song?
That impulse became Song For You, the nonprofit organization she founded to bring personalized songs to patients, loved ones, and frontline workers during times of crisis. Since then, the project has grown into a community of artists using music to comfort, connect, and preserve memory.
On this episode of The Third Story, Emily discusses the path that led her there: growing up in a large Irish Catholic family in Chicago, balancing music with social work, her unexpected popularity in Ireland, surviving a serious illness that left her unable to walk, and discovering that helping others through song also helped her find her own voice.
A candid and uplifting conversation about resilience, identity, and the enduring usefulness of music.
