Prologue Eva Cassidy Biography

This text can be listened to on the Eva Cassidy fan club’s YouTube channel. There you can also find additional video and audio material: https://youtu.be/ByiI2i_JTV4

People sometimes ask us about the difference between Eva Cassidy, de biografie (the biography), and Behind the Rainbow, the story of Eva Cassidy. The texts of both books are virtually identical, but the Dutch biography begins with a prologue that is not included in the English edition. In it, author Johan Bakker describes how his search for the heart and soul of Eva Cassidy proceeded through trial and error. We have translated this prologue for English-speaking Eva Cassidy fans. The first part is reproduced below.

Prologue

In the summer of 2001, upon returning home from holiday, I find an envelope on the doormat. It contains a CD by a singer unknown to me and a letter requesting that I review it. The brown cover of Songbird, which looks like it has been made at home, with a not-so-sharp photo of an unremarkable young woman, doesn’t really make me eager to listen to it. But when I give Eva Cassidy the benefit of the doubt and hear the opening bars of her version of ‘Fields of Gold’, I am transfixed. Eva’s hypnotic voice captivates me for forty-five minutes, right up to the final bars of ‘Over the Rainbow’. Cold shivers and genuine goose bumps alternate even when I play the CD again. It is not only Eva’s voice combined with her simple guitar accompaniment, but also her choice of songs. Beautiful timeless melodies and lyrics about life and death. The way Eva sings, ‘The dreams that you dare to dream, really do come true,’ you can hear that she truly believes it. The accompanying information from the record company reveals that Eva Cassidy (1963 – 1996) has been dead for five years.

Songbird

In the autumn of 2008, I have the opportunity to interview Irish-English-Georgian singer Katie Melua at the Grand Hotel Amrath in Amsterdam. Because I arrive well ahead of time, I have a cup of coffee in the hotel bar, where two young men in their twenties are sitting at a table. Every now and then, they glance questioningly in my direction. When an SBS camera crew appears at their table, I assume they are trainee reporters. The boys receive a signal that they are allowed to come in for an audience and leave the bar area, followed by the camera crew. They return sooner than expected. Triumphantly, they hold up a gold disc, which the singer has apparently given them. According to their award the boys are called Nick and Simon, and I decide to ask my daughter at home if she knows them.

Nick & Simon

Katie Melua has now arrived on the ground floor and she takes me to an antique lift. ‘If the power goes out now, I’ll be stuck between heaven and earth with Katie Melua for a few hours,’ I think to myself as we slowly move upwards.

However, it doesn’t come to that. Katie Melua leads me to her hotel room where we sit down on a relatively small two-seater sofa. The singer doesn’t have to think long about her musical influences: ‘I grew up in the era of hip hop and R&B. The showmanship, the slick presentation and the uniformity of that music began to bother me more and more. That’s when I discovered an amateurishly filmed performance by Eva Cassidy.’

Katie Melua

‘The image was static and sometimes even colourless, but Eva and her band did exactly what they had to do: perform beautiful, often fragile songs. Eva didn’t care about the glitz and glamour of being an artist, but she sang with complete conviction. When I heard her sing, I knew I wanted to do that too. That same day, I wrote ‘Faraway Voice’ as a tribute. In that song, I express how unfortunate it is that I never got to hear her sing in real life. It is characteristic of Eva Cassidy that, even when she knew she was terminally ill, she performed ‘Wonderful World’ during her last performance.’ Katie Melua posthumously adapted the song into a successful duet with the help of old film footage.

Eva & Katie

After the interview, I express my amazement to Daniëlle Metselaar and Alice Willems from Melua’s record company, who are also responsible for promoting Eva’s albums in the Netherlands. Many people are fascinated by Eva Cassidy’s voice, but we know very little about her. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to write a book about her? The two PR staffers agree, especially since the song reservoir is running low. A biography would surely keep the flame burning longer.  I promise to do some research and keep them informed of my findings.