Songbird [180g Vinyl]

by Eva Cassidy

Overview

Though many recording artists meld and straddle a variety of genres, few if any defy categorization by excelling in so many disparate styles as the late Eva Cassidy. The diverse offerings from the evocative thrush from Washington, D.C. -- who died tragically of melanoma in 1996 at age 33 -- run the gamut from the radio-friendly pop cover of Sting's "Fields of Gold" to a jazz chanteuse rendition of the standard "Autumn Leaves" to the soulful R&B of Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready" to her spine-tingling gospel delivery of "Oh, Had I a Golden Thread." Cassidy's mastery of each is perhaps best evidenced by the fact that the Washington Area Music Association honored her (in 1996) as Best Female Vocalist in four separate categories: blues, contemporary jazz, traditional jazz, and roots rock/traditional R&B, in addition to naming her Artist of the Year, and her then-current release, Live at Blues Alley, Album of the Year. Songbird is a posthumous anthology culled from that album and her other solo release, Eva by Heart, along with one track from her 1992 duet album with Chuck Brown titled The Other Side. Though the production value on several songs falls well short of state of the art, the shimmering beauty of her crystal-clear voice, combined with her seemingly limitless range and imaginative phrasing, cuts through to both heart and soul. Whether she beckons a soothing timbre for seductively restrained passages or shakes the rafters by unleashing her formidable power and gorgeous falsetto, Cassidy's warblings always fuse her purity of tone with a purity of emotion and a palpable connection with the lyric. Though the songs described above are luscious, the coup de maitre is the album's finale -- surely one of the great recordings in popular music of the time -- Cassidy's stunning version of "Over the Rainbow." Recorded with only her own accompaniment on acoustic guitar, keyboards, and synthesizer, Cassidy's voice swoops and soars over a musical panorama -- though with a wistful, melancholic shading that almost seems to betray a premonition of her own demise, despite the fact that it would be nearly four years before she would be diagnosed with her terminal illness. Cassidy more than rearranges the Judy Garland classic -- she reinvents it. The song is immediately familiar, yet the beautiful colors that arc the sky are very much hers. In an eerie coincidence, if one inverts the two words contained in the album's title, Songbird (which was taken from her straightforward rendition of the Fleetwood Mac cut), the result is "Bird Song." The irony is that "Bird Song" is the title of the Grateful Dead's ode to another phenomenal woman singer whose melodious flight was tragically cut short: Janis Joplin. One could argue that its lyrics and sentiment are equally apropos of Eva Cassidy. ~ Scott Taylor

Product Details

Release Date:	07/01/2015
Label:	Blix Street Records
UPC:	0739341014581
Rank:	35819

Tracks

1. Fields of Gold
2. Wade in the Water
3. Autumn Leaves
4. Wayfaring Stranger
5. Songbird
6. People Get Ready
7. I Know You by Heart
8. Time Is a Healer
9. Oh, Had I a Golden Thread
10. Over the Rainbow

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Eva Cassidy   Primary Artist,Guitar,Vocals,Soloist,Strings,Keyboards,Lead Vocals,Guitar (Acoustic),Guitar (Electric),Vocals (Background)
Chris Biondo   Bass,Guitar,Guitar (Acoustic)
Chris Walker   Trumpet,Trumpet
Keith Grimes   Guitar,Guitar (Electric)
Dan Cassidy   Violin
Larry Melton   Trumpet,Double Bass,Bass (Upright)
Hilton Felton   Organ,Organ (Hammond)
Mike Stein   Violin
Mark Carson   Piano,Vocals (Background),Piano,Vocals (Background)
Raice McLeod   Drums
Lenny Williams   Organ,Piano
John Gillespie   Organ,Organ (Hammond)
Jon Gillespie   Organ (Hammond)
William Ju Ju House   Drums,Congas
Kent Wood   Organ
Bryant Roberts   Vocals (Background)
Dontane Lane   Vocals (Background)
Eric D. Dorsey   Vocals (Background)
Troy W.D. Brown Sr.   Vocals (Background)

Technical Credits

Roy Battle   Engineer
Chris Biondo   Engineer,Producer,Drum Programming
Traditional   Composer
Joseph Kosma   Composer
Harold Arlen   Composer
John McVie   Composer
Jacques Prevert   Composer
Christine McVie   Composer
Curtis Mayfield   Composer
Eve Nelson   Composer
Eva Cassidy   Arranger,Producer
Greg Smith   Composer,Composer
Johnny Mercer   Composer
Pete Seeger   Composer
Gordon Sumner   Composer
Sting   Composer,Lyricist
Geoff Gillette   Remixing
E.Y. "Yip" Harburg   Composer
Lenny Williams   Engineer
Bryan McCulley   Engineer
Diane Scanlon   Composer
Kent Wood   Engineer