Silent Night
Just before Christmas, a ‘new’ Christmas song by Eva Cassidy has been released posthumously. It is Eva’s favourite Christmas song ‘Silent Night’, which was already known in a guitar version, this time her pianist Lenny Williams has added a beautiful piano part to Eva’s voice.
Eva Cassidy
In 1981 Eva Cassidy and her friends Ned Judy, Mark Merella, Larry Melton and David Lourim founded the band Easy Street. In that year the group performed twice at The Market Inn in their hometown Bowie on Christmas day and Boxing Day. Eva’s serious presentation (which usually got in her way) combined perfectly with the traditional Christmas songs they played: ‘Silent Night’, ‘O Come, All You Faithful’ and ‘Go, Tell It On The Mountains’. Eva loved Christmas music; she sang Christmas repertoire every year well before Christmas.
Chuck Brown and Eva
In the 1990s she performed light-hearted Christmas music with Chuck Brown, the extroverted Godfather or Go-Go. She recorded two Christmas songs with Brown: ‘The Christmas Song’ and ‘That Spirit Of Christmas’. They both appeared on The Spirit Of Christmas (1999). Eva Cassidy’s demo version of ‘It’s Not The Presents (Under My Tree, It’s Your Presence Next To Me)’ written by Billy Poore and Tex Rabinowitz was intended for Linda Ronstadt, who never recorded it. That’s why Eva Cassidy’s rendition has become the original one. (Another Rockin’ Christmas, 1995).
In the ‘new’ version Eva sings two verses:
Silent night, holy night!
All is calm, all is bright.
Round yon Virgin, Mother and Child.
Holy infant so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.
Silent night, holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight.
Glories stream from heaven afar
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia,
Christ the Savior is born!
Christ the Savior is born.
Eva Cassidy and Christmas music seem to be made for each other. One of the last songs, possibly the last song that Eva sang was ‘Silent Night’: she harmonized it with Marcy Marxer, Grace Griffith and her mother Barbara. She sang one verse in German, her mother’s language. Eva called this home choir her ‘Angel Brigade’. It was a few weeks before Christmas 1996 when Eva didn’t have much time to live.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fmTfcNzP_Y
2 responses to “Silent Night”
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Eva has the voice of an angel.
So perfect it makes me feel very emotional. We are so fortunate that Eva left us this treasure trove of unique music.