She would have turned 60 this February and now to mark that anniversary, a new recording is being released of Eva Cassidy’s songs, set to an orchestral score provided by the London Symphony Orchestra. Her skill also meant she could improvise the tunes at will, as well as bend the notes with a sculptor’s care. “She could change the melody to something the band had not heard before on a gig-by-gig basis,” Biondo said. At age 11, Cassidy began singing and playing guitar in a Washington-area band called Easy Street. [6] This band performed in a variety of styles at weddings, corporate parties, and pubs. Due to her shyness, she struggled with performing in front of strangers. [7] While a student at Bowie High School, she sang with a local band called Stonehenge. [4] During the summer of 1983, Cassidy sang and played guitar six days a week at the theme park Wild World. [4] Her younger brother Dan, a fiddler, was also a member of this working band. She enrolled in art classes at Prince George's Community College but dropped out after finding them unhelpful. [8]

‎I Can Only Be Me (Orchestral) - Album by Eva Cassidy, London

Sting on Cassidy (who had recorded a version of his song " Fields of Gold" in 1996, the year she died). [28]At that point, she was relatively unknown outside her home state, but a recording of her version of Songbird, written by the late Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac fame started to circulate and her reputation grew. Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (pdfed.). Mt. Martha, VIC, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p.52. At times, however, the subtlety of her approach, and the quiet intensity of it, could fly over the heads of some audiences. “We never played loud which was a problem for us,” Biondo said. “One time, we played this club in southern Maryland and we were doing ballads, country tunes and the clientele was into Lynyrd Skynyrd, so people were leaving. The guy who had hired us to play said, ‘How about I pay you and you guys go home?’ It’s never a good thing when someone pays you to leave.” On the other hand, Biondo said Cassidy “thought that was kinda cool,” an attitude that underscores her focus on the performance rather than its reception. “She just liked to go out and sing,” he said. “She didn’t want anybody to jump up and down.” In 2001, Songbird: Eva Cassidy: Her Story By Those Who Knew Her, a book on the life and work of Cassidy based on interviews with close family and associates, was released in the UK. A US edition published by Gotham Books was released in late 2003 and includes two additional chapters on her influences and success in the US. Her life story has also been adapted into a musical [49] and also a Broadway piece for cancer benefit. [50]

Eva Cassidy to release new album with help of AI technology

Kelly, John (March 6, 2023). "Strings attached: A new Eva Cassidy album features an orchestra". Washington Post . Retrieved March 11, 2023.In 2008, another new album, Somewhere, was released. Unlike previous albums, which consisted solely of cover songs, this release contains two original songs co-written by Cassidy. An acoustic album, Simply Eva, was released in January 2011. Born on February 2, 1963, at the Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C., [3] Cassidy grew up in Oxon Hill, Maryland, and later Bowie, Maryland. She was the third of four children. Her father, Hugh Cassidy, is a teacher, sculptor, musician, former army medic, and world champion powerlifter of Irish and Scottish descent, while her mother, Barbara ( née Kratzer), is a German horticulturist from Bad Kreuznach. [2] [4] [5] From an early age, Cassidy displayed interest in art and music. When she was nine, her father began teaching her to play the guitar, and she began to play and sing at family gatherings. [4]

Eva Cassidy - Wikipedia Eva Cassidy - Wikipedia

Even Straw believes one release shouldn’t have happened – the Wonderful World set from 2004. Still, he said, pressure from the public dictated that release. As to what Cassidy herself would have made of the sheer scale of the attention she has received, Biondo said, “she would have been scared shitless.”Biondo believes that skill is what freed her to bring so much emotion to the songs. “There are a lot of components to someone trying to pull off a tune,” he said. “They have to think about the technical parts, about what the next note is and what the phrasing will be. But because those things were so natural to Eva, it allowed her to go right to the next level, which was to go inside the song and feel the lyrics.” Those performances in a noisy club with chatter and diners present, would go on to be her first live solo album; Live At Blues Alley. Once she began to sing, however, he was instantly taken with her natural skill. “A lot of people take lessons to learn music theory and how to do harmonies,” he said. “She could just do it. I watched her come up with three- or four-part harmonies out of nowhere. She would hear it in her head and then sing anything she heard.”