‘The hauntingly beautiful voice of Eva Cassidy’ (guest blog)
Eva Marie Cassidy (1963 – 1996) was an unpretentious humble girl from small town Bowie, Maryland (US). She worked hard with her mother in their nursery, growing flowers and plants. But Eva also sang. She had the voice of an angel, and delivered songs with purity, passion, and power. She accompanied herself on guitar, and she also sang with a band. Eva would immerse herself in the words, she “connected to the lyric” and lived the songs. Her voice communicated directly to the hearts of her listeners. Rarely was there a dry eye in the place.
Eva @ Blues Alley
In the documentary film Eva Cassidy: Timeless Voice, Carrie Grant, a British vocal coach who worked with top recording artists in the UK and US, was amazed when she heard Eva’s voice. After listening to ‘Over The Rainbow’ she said, “I cannot imagine what Eva Cassidy was thinking of when she chose to make it sound the way it does. But it’s just genius!” She describes how she redefines the song in unexpected ways, “Yet for some reason it just works.” She also explained the effect that Eva’s voice had on listeners. “She sounds like she’s singing just to you. And that is what makes it so intimate. And that becomes even more profound once you know she’s no longer alive. Because it’s haunting. And it’s personal.”
Carrie Grant
Eva sang the songs that she liked, regardless of genres, which is why record companies would not sign her during the days of manufactured music. They couldn’t slot her into a specific category. She sang blues, jazz, gospel, folk and old standards. At first she was extremely shy, didn’t care for stage presence or how she dressed. With the help of local musicians she performed at Blues Alley, a local jazz spot in Georgetown, Maryland. One of her shows was later recorded. She sold two locally produced CDs out of the trunk of her car.
We might wonder how her singing was recorded in the first place when no company would sign her. We owe Chris Biondo a debt of gratitude. Chris worked as a bassist, guitarist, keyboardist, recording engineer, and producer. He owned a studio in the 80s and 90s, and Eva would come in for session work. He recognized her ability, and said he “would just roll tape and stay out of her way.” At one point they were romantically involved. Chris was the one who recognized her transcendent, ageless genius.
Chris Biondo
In 1986 Chris began recording the then-unknown singer Eva Cassidy. For the next ten years he worked with Eva to develop her as a recording artist, producing most of her recordings available today. In the years since Eva’s death in 1996, her recordings have sold more than 10 million copies and achieved international renown, including three albums that reached number one in the UK charts. Chris has received numerous Gold and Platinum records in the U.S. and internationally for his work with Eva.
Bill Straw of Blix Street Records signed her up and continues to release and reissue her music, like the 20th anniversary of Live At Blues Alley: the 2CD Nightbird album, The Best Of Eva Cassidy, Simply Eva, and eight other collections listed there that you can sample.
Her performances of ‘Over The Rainbow’, ‘What A Wonderful World’, ‘Songbird’, ‘Autumn Leaves’, ‘Time After Time’, Sting’s ‘Fields Of Gold’, and more are legendary, many recorded live. Sting himself was blown away when he heard her rendition of his song. He put a copy of her Songbird CD into record producer David Foster’s hands who quoted him saying, “‘If you want to hear the greatest version of my song ever’—he didn’t say it in an egotistical way—he said, ‘listen to ‘Fields Of Gold’ with this girl, it’ll change your life.’ And her voice is life-changing, she’s that spiritual.” I love that song and remember hearing it on an airplane’s music channel during a flight. It was astounding! I had to find out who this singer was.
Sting
A relatively unknown singer in America at the time, somehow her music made its way across the Atlantic. From the first time Sir Terry Wogan, a BBC radio broadcaster, listened to Eva sing, he knew “she was an outstanding talent.” He said, “It was pure sound. A bell-like voice. She had this perfect pitch.” He couldn’t wait to play it on the radio. His was the most listened to program in the country at the time. It created a huge response from many of their seven million listeners wanting to know who she was. Unfortunately they found out that she had died two years earlier of cancer at the young age of 33.
Sir Terry Wogan
When Mark Hagon, a Top of the Pops BBC producer at the time, agreed to play that homemade video of Eva Cassidy singing Over The Rainbow, people kept calling in for weeks wanting to know her name. The listening public created a demand for her music. It was a groundswell! Sales of her CDs went from a hundred thousand to over a million in the UK. “Radio broke it. Television exploded it.”
At one point five of her CDs became top sellers at the same time, a feat usually held by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. She was then discovered back home in the USA. ABC Nightline in Washington, DC researched and produced The Eva Cassidy Story. It was shown in many countries around the world and within a week of it airing her CDs went to the top of the local charts.
Eva Cassidy in Georgetown
In Timeless Voice, Terry Wogan concluded, “You’d have to say about Eva Cassidy that her talent was pretty timeless. The voice has a quality of timelessness about it. Anytime you would hear it, whether it was in the past, or in the future, it’ll still be worth listening to, and still strike a responsive chord in most people’s hearts.” Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac, who knew Eva, said: “She was brilliant. She had the magic. And I call it, It. She had It!”
You can listen to her music on the YouTube Eva Cassidy channel. A book about her was written (Sept 29, 2003) by Rob Burley and Jonathan Maitland called, Eva Cassidy: Songbird: Her Story by Those Who Knew Her. The biography Eva Cassidy Behind the Rainbow, was written (February 1, 2012) by art critic and music lover Johan Bakker.
Ken Chawkin
Ken Chawkin is a media relations director for Maharishi University of Management.
Follow Ken on Twitter: @kenchawkin
2 responses to “‘The hauntingly beautiful voice of Eva Cassidy’ (guest blog)”
Leave a Reply to Ken Chawkin Cancel reply
This was a nice surprise! I like the way you embedded photos of the relevant people mentioned in my article. You can see it on my blog with links to the various videos. https://theuncarvedblog.com/2018/01/21/the-hauntingly-beautiful-voice-of-eva-cassidy/
Eva. Is easily my favorite singer