Two bootleg albums

As Eva’s star rose higher and higher Eva´s friends decided to release albums of previously unheard material. In 1994 Bryan McCulley, the Blues Alley cameraman, had attempted to record footage of Eva’s intimate performances at Pearl’s in Annapolis. Eva sang as if she was performing to a small group of friends.Bryan plugged directly into the mixing console and he managed to produce a reasonable audio recording. One of the best songs that night was ‘American Tune’. Eva listened to the tape as she worked on her murals in the school canteens and it was duplicated and circulated among her friends after her death.

The video recording was less successful: it had failed on the first night, but the second night had seen the capture of some great material. Eva never saw Bryan’s videotapes, since she didn’t like to look at herself.

The audio from this night eventually ended up on a bootleg album called Live At Pearl’s, which was uploaded to the Yahoo Eva Cassidy Group in MP3 format by a mystery person in 2004. In June 2004, the family lawyer reacted by sending a furious letter to site moderator Scott Peterkin of Stone Mountain, Georgia, in which she raised many serious issues, including a breach of copyright. She requested the name of the poster and ordered Scott to remove the material before further harm was done.

In an attempt to reduce the damage Blix Street pulled together the best parts of the Pearl’s concerts, polishing them up for commercial release. They paid Bryan McCulley for the rights, but when they listened to the tapes they discovered that a clarinet had spoiled many of the songs – it would be practically impossible to remove the part, rendering them useless. The best clarinet-free songs ended up on several of Eva’s later albums.

As Eva’s star rose higher and higher her friend and fellow musician David Lourim and his business companions Tony Taylor and Al Dale decided to release an album of previously unheard material. In the eighties David Lourim had recorded many songs with Eva on his 24-track recorder. These sessions found an official release in 2000 on the Renata label under the name No Boundaries. The only cover on the album is Carole King’s ‘Natural Woman’. The other tracks are all originals, including ‘Emotional Step’, ‘The Waiting Is Over’, ‘You Are’, ‘Little Children’, ‘I’ve Got This Feeling,’ ‘When It’s Too Late’, and ‘On The Inside’. David and Tony evidently misled Chris Biondo by implying that Hugh and Barbara approved of the release of this material.

2 responses to “Two bootleg albums”

  1. As Eva’s star rose higher and higher Eva´s friends decided to release albums of previously unheard material.

  2. Shanna Salas says:

    This is the first tribute album recorded live by vocal duo Amikaeyla and Trelawny Rose to singer Eva Cassidy who is beloved all over the world for her fresh and pure arrangements. Tribute albums are one of the most intimate and moving forms of artistic expression. They must be handled with utmost care and consideration, not just for the music, but for the artist s absolute intent. Amikaeyla and Trelawny s live recording delivers a heartfelt tribute and brings the essence of Eva Cassidy s music with their new interpretations and vocal arrangements sung in harmony. Eva Cassidy s untimely death from melanoma in 1996 at age 33 is one that the music community will mourn for years to come. Her stunning treatment of Over the Rainbow , What a Wonderful World and Sting s Fields of Gold gained momentum when she was signed postmortem to Blix records in the UK. Over 10 years after her death, she continues to release new albums to her growing fan base. Amikaeyla and Trelawny Rose were both on their own path of solo music careers when they met by chance in a music workshop. They became instant friends and joined forces to create a performance and recording as a vocal duo. Their kindred friendship and love for Eva Cassidy comes through in this duet album with a combination of rich harmonies and artistically crafted solo work. The intention of the tribute is focused on introducing the music of Eva Cassidy to future generations and to raise awareness for women s health issues, in particular, cancer. Amikaeyla and Trelawny together chose the material, wrote new vocal arrangements, carefully collected the very best musicians, found the perfect venue and recorded To Eva with Love with two voices and one heart.

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