Eva Cassidy : Releases >>

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Songbird (W/4 Live Tracks) >>

Songbird cherry-picks tracks from the three locally released albums of Eva Cassidy, whose hauntingly beautiful vocals went virtually unheard outside her native Washington, D.C., during her short 33 years with us. Lost to melanoma in 1996, Cassidy sang with an unaffected purity and an astonishing ability to make both classic and contemporary songs sound like they were written just for her. Sting's "Fields Of Gold" finally lives up to its title through the alchemy of Cassidy's transcendent rendition, while other tracks on this anthology showcase her ease in the realms of pop (Christine McVie's "Songbird"), soul ("People Get Ready"), gospel ("Wade On The Water") and traditional standards ("Autumn Leaves" and "Over The Rainbow"). Framed by understated jazz and pop arrangements, Cassidy's clear, soulful voice and exquisite phrasing make her that rarest of vocalists whose interpretations are a complement to any song. A fine introduction to a true talent. --Billy Grenier

Time After Time >>

The story of Eva Cassidy--her phenomenal talent, her innocence, simplicity and lack of worldly ambition, and her sudden death from cancer at the age of 33--has caught the public imagination in a most remarkable way, especially in Britain. Once heard, Eva Cassidy's voice is unforgettable. Her tone was pure and clear, unclouded by vibrato and unwavering in pitch, but she could manipulate it to take in husky blues, ringing ballads or simple, unadorned folksong. It was all too much for record company executives. They didn't know what to do with such unlimited talent. As a result, she recorded very little, mostly in the small Washington DC studio of her friend, bassist Chris Biondo. That is where most of these tracks originate and there are some gorgeous performances among them. They make an moving introduction to the all-too-short career of a great popular singer. --Dave Gelly

1996 Live At Blues Alley >>

It's difficult not to feel jealous of the audience who were present for these shows at the Blues Alley club in January, 1996. Eva Cassidy's voice has the soul of Aretha Franklin, the smoky melancholy of Billie Holiday, the raw passion of Janis Joplin all rolled into one--and she'll never make another record. Later that same year she died of cancer, leaving behind a painfully small recorded legacy to be discovered belatedly and posthumously by the rest of the world. But those fortunate few in the Blues Alley club knew the secret long before. Thankfully, producer, mentor and (for a time) boyfriend Chris Biondo had the foresight to record Eva Cassidy for--as things turned out--posterity. So, imagine yourself in a dark corner of that tiny club and let the woman with the guitar and the extraordinary voice serenade you. The set consists of standards, mostly jazz--alternately bluesy and torchy--but with a sprinkling of folk ballads that she sings with haunting delicacy (Sting's "Fields Of Gold" being the stand out track). Perfectionist that she was, Cassidy refused to let this album be released unless a studio track--Pete Seeger's "Oh, Had I A Golden Thread"--was also included. But every track is a polished jewel in her hands: the limpid beauty of Johnny Mercer's evergreen "Autumn Leaves", the swinging blues of Billie Holiday's "Fine And Mellow", the uptempo soul of Al Green's "Take Me To The River". There are only four albums featuring Eva Cassidy, and one of those is a compilation of the other three, so for anyone who is haunted by her voice, Live At Blues Alley is a must-have. --Mark Walker

Eva By Heart >>

This is Eva Cassidy's one and only solo studio album. Before her untimely death in 1996 she made a live album (Live At Blues Alley) and a duet album with Chuck Brown (The Other Side), and these, together with the posthumous compilation Songbird, represent the sum total of her output. Every album, every track is therefore doubly precious. For Eva Cassidy's voice is of the very rarest hue: the kind of voice that only comes along once in a generation, the kind of voice that grabs your heartstrings and just won't let go. Whether she is singing blues and jazz numbers, evergreen standards or folk ballads, her vocal expression, her range, note-perfect accuracy and sense of passionate immersion in the music are all palpable. If there's a problem it's that she is so supremely confident an interpreter of all these styles that the album lacks a single focus: Fleetwood Mac's touching ballad "Songbird" is bookended by the Arlen/Mercer standard "Blues In The Night" (a swinging blues) and "Need Your Love So Bad" (a duet with jazzman Chuck Brown). Sometimes Eva is Aretha Franklin, sometimes she's Sandy Denny. But it scarcely matters for anyone captivated by her voice. And anyone who listens to this album is certain to be captivated. --Mark Walker

Other Side >>

At first sight, the pairing of Chuck Brown and Eva Cassidy was an unlikely one: Brown, self-styled "Godfather of Go-Go", a hoary veteran of the Washington D.C. jazz and blues scene, Cassidy an almost pathologically shy singer half his age with little experience either in the studio or on stage. But the resulting album--the inspiration of producer Chris Biondo, recorded in 1992--is a minor classic. Brown's gruff, bluesman's voice is the perfect foil to Cassidy's soulful, expressive singing: he growls, she soars. Cassidy could sing any number of styles with equal conviction, but her take on jazz and R&B was arguably her strongest suit: raunchy, bluesy and saturated with emotion. The songs are a mix of standards and wannabe standards. The ballads--"God Bless The Child", "Dark End Of The Street"--stand out, with Cassidy's own, quite magical arrangement of "Over The Rainbow" topping all for sheer emotional power. Chuck Brown is a capable jazz singer, but the selling point here is, of course, Eva Cassidy, whose extraordinary talent is only just beginning to attract the recognition it deserved during her tragically short life. --Mark Walker

Imagine >>

For anyone who suspects that record companies will soon be releasing Eva Cassidy's voice mail messages, it's extraordinarily pleasing to note that Imagine is more than just a bottom-of-the-barrel-scraping exercise. All of these tracks are previously unreleased and most are live recordings, but listeners who already own Live at Blues Alley know just how refreshing Cassidy's live performances were. Check out her take on Sandy Denny's "Who Knows Where the Time Goes?" to feel a shiver of delight at another effortlessly ideal cover, or listen to her laid-back "You've Changed" from the Blues Alley sessions to experience more of her soulful jazz. Elsewhere, the solo acoustic reading of Gordon Lightfoot's "Early Morning Rain" shows off her guitar skills, and if "Imagine" doesn't ever scale the heights of Songbird's "Over the Rainbow" it still demonstrates how she always had something new and uniquely compelling to say when performing a familiar standard. Studio recordings "Still Not Ready" and "I Can Only Be Me" are, oddly perhaps, the least successful cuts. Happily, the album concludes with another lovely solo standard, "Danny Boy." The recording quality varies noticeably from track to track, and there are a few awkward fade-outs--presumably to remove audience noise--but still the sparkling music comes across quite vividly. Imagine may not be the best way to discover Eva Cassidy for the first time, but established fans will warmly welcome this new collection. --Mark Walker

American Tune >>

Eva Cassidy fans surely feel something akin to relief when another cache of tapes is opened for release. The singer's 1996 death at the age of 33, after all, rendered her output finite in the saddest and most frustrating way. American Tune's modus operandi is similar to previous Cassidy CDs in its mix of standard repertoire (here, everything from "Yesterday" to "God Bless the Child" and Ray Charles's "Hallelujah I Love [Him] So" rubs shoulders) and fine, less obvious choices (Joe Simon's early-'70s soul hit "Drowning in the Sea of Love"). The sometimes pedestrian backing does little to spoil the pleasure of Cassidy's pure tone and the surprises she's able to wring from the material--on the Charles tune, she even suggests a distaff Lyle Lovett. She'd no doubt be pleased to know that tracks uncovered at this point now sound like, well, notes from a missed, much-loved friend. --Rickey Wright