eva cassidy...

... she had a fabulous voice indeed and a lovely sense of intimacy about the recordings. She would have to be one of the most versatile singers of all time.

Had visitors over from the UK recently and they went home determined to investigate Naim equipment and Eva Cassidy recordings.

I have "Songbird", "Live at Blues Alley" and "Time After Time", IMHO "Live at Blues Alley" stands head and shoulders above the other two, did she produce any other recordings of her own or perhaps any collaborations ?

Cheers

John

Ironically, we first heard her while driving through Ireland two years ago and hearing a goosebump-inducing version of Sting's "Fields of Gold" over the radio; we later picked up the "Live at Blues Alley" CD just for that song and on doing so discovered a great singer.

She didn't record for very long before melanoma struck her down so selection of her work runs pretty thin. Various archives are being scoured for more but what's out there is most likely all that there is. We feel that Blues Alley is her best album, although the rest are still quite good.

It's heartening to see posts from people discovering this woman about every two or three months on the various audio forums I read; quality art has a way of getting around, doesn't it?

Cheers

Keith.

Being another Eva fan,I had a quick look on "allmusic.com".

It seems there are...

1997 Live at Blues Alley
1997 Eva by Heart
1998 Songbird
2000 Time After Time
2000 No Boundaries

...with the Live at Blues Alley and Songbird being the highest rated.

There is also mention of various collaberations with others.

Regards

Chris

I agree that she is a quality artist, sadly no longer with us. I first heard eva by picking up a trial pair of headphones in a virgin record store, it was songbird. I was immediately struck by the quality of her singing and I love acoustic recordings anyway.

I've since purchased songbird and time after time. The one thing that stands out about her is the emotion when she sings. It looks like blues alley should be the next purchase...

stuart

thanks guys. looks like "blues alley" is a definite next purchase for me too. chris b, thanks for posting the discography.

enjoy...

ken

Totally agree. "Live at Blues Alley" is the finest, IMHO, followed by "Eva By Heart". This has many of the tracks from "Songbird". Another excellent release is "The Other Side" made with Chuck Brown, and memorable for the rendition of "Fever". Although musically impeccable, the downside of this album is the fake (digital) piano used every time a real paino is required, but this is only on a few tracks -- I assume the budget must have been tight.

Best;

Mark

I'm sorry but the Eva album with Chuck Brown is bloody awful! He ruins every song with his 'muso' presense and they even 'scat', which is a hanging offence in my opinion. The best two albums are 'Songbird' and 'Time after Time'; 'Live at Blues Alley' is good but there is something not quite right about it.

chris brandon: i have you to thank for the allmusic.com link. i went there and found i could do a search by track!! well, there is one particular reggae track i have been looking for for a long long time without success. its "have a little faith" -- i didnt know the artist. when i did a search on allmusic.com, found it, and the artist -- nicky thomas!!!! ordered the album straightway, cost me quite a bit, arrived today after only 1 week -- great cd if, like me, you are into vintage reggae...

apologies, slightly off-topic...

puffy: i have "rumours", on vinyl.

enjoy...

ken

puffy: when my t/t is back i will compare and let you know my view. boy, "rumours" takes me back a long long while...

enjoy...

ken

Hi Ken,

Glad you found the "allmusic.com" link useful,I tend to use it a a kind of "music information library".And used as a reference tool,it is very good indeed !

Ross,"Sonic Valium" ? - well er...yes I suppose you could loosly describe it in such terms,but I prefer to think of Eva Cassidy more along the lines of a gentle chill-out artist.

Not the sort of music to put on just before going out for a saturday evening,but for wind-down mode,it can be just the ticket !

Regards

Chris

Hi Ken,
amazing - we really share the same music taste. Eva, Keb'Mo, Fred Simon; I bet you also like Ian Janis!
Regards
Uwe

PS: your private e-mail doesn't work. (?)

i have just sent you an email, assuming of course that the email address you have here is "real". nice to hear from you!!!

enjoy...

ken