Eva Cassidy : Releases >>

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Songbird >>

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

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

Songbird >>

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

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

American Tune >>

American Tune brings together five new songs taken from rehearsal tapes (discovered by guitarist Keith Grimes), a few live recordings and one studio demo. Fans have been captivated by Eva Cassidy's truly remarkable voice and ability to make whichever song she turned her hand to, her own. As with all her songs, it's as though you're listening in on a private performance by a woman who was hardly known before her tragically premature death. Cassidy never knew that any of her songs would reach the global audience they have, and therein once again lies her magic. The low quality of the actual recordings on offer here merely adds to the charm.

However, it's the choice of songs that lets the collection down. "Yesterday" is a self-indulgent, cheesy parody of the Beatles classic (tellingly, it's one of her earliest recordings) and "God Bless This Child" drops the blues of the Billie Holiday standard and replaces it with a dreary and insipid interpretation. Her delicate, often haunting vocal does breathe life into the usually wet "True Colours" and both "Drowning in a Sea of Love" and "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" are highlights, set apart by smoky, acoustic funk and jazzroom playfulness respectively. Anybody coming to Cassidy's legacy for the first time (there must be a few people left) would be better starting with Songbird and progressing, via 2000's Time After Time, to this--a worthwhile addition, but not a solid album. --Cortman Virtue

Imagine >>

For anyone who suspects the record companies will soon be releasing Eva Cassidy's ansaphone 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 will know just how refreshing Cassidy's live performances were. Here the quality of the recording varies noticeably from track to track, and there are a few awkward fade-outs, presumably to remove audience noise, but still the sparkling music-making comes across vividly. 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 version, or her laid-back "You've Changed" from the Blues Alley sessions to experience more of that effortlessly soulful jazz. Elsewhere, the solo acoustic "Early Morning Rain" shows what a good guitar player she was, and if "Imagine" doesn't ever scale the heights of her "Over The Rainbow" it demonstrates she still had something new to say about a familiar standard. Studio recordings "Still Not Ready" and "I Can Only Be Me" are, perversely perhaps, the least successful cuts. Happily the album concludes with another lovely solo standard, "Danny Boy". Imagine isn't the best place to discover Eva Cassidy for the first time, but established fans will welcome this new collection warmly. --Mark Walker