Time After Time by Eva Cassidy
An Extraordinary Talent
Minus all the machinery that the music industry can put behind an artist,
Eva Cassidy sang bewitchingly in Washington, D.C. and then died without
fanfare in 1996, when she was a mere 33 years old. And then the world
began hearing Cassidy, thanks largely to Songbird, a posthumous
collection of locally released album tracks that went on to garner media
attention, critical praise, and commercial success. This collection gathers
both live and studio cuts delivered within warm, mostly acoustic settings;
often it is simply Cassidy, her voice, and her guitar. Inside are some of
Cassidys best-executed covers, beginning with Paul Simons Kathys Song
and ending with a stellar rendition of the traditional gospel Way Beyond the
Blue. In between are heart-wringing versions of Bill Witherss Aint No
Sunshine and Cyndi Laupers Time After Time. What distinguishes Cassidy
so completely is her offhand ability to transform songs beyond their initial
character with a voice that brilliantly mixes an airy floating quality and an
edge that you know can pop open to reveal a belt-it-out strength to rival the
best in the singers trade. --Andrew Bartlett
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Eva Cassidy was a minor celebrity on
the Maryland-D.C. club circuit, with a small but devoted coterie of fans.
Unlike bigger stars with smaller talents, Eva did not aggressively seek the
limelight, but was content to sing whatever she liked, a trait that made her
difficult to pigeonhole for the corporate packagers of pop. She seemed to
be on the verge of stardom when she died, far too young, of metastatic
melanoma in 1996 at age 33. She left behind a relatively small body of
work cobbled together from studio and club recordings. But her popularity,
against all odds, has continued to grow since her un timely death, and more
than a decade later, Eva Cassidy is still winning fans. Her voice possessed
extraordinary versatility and effortless grace: Alternately powerful and
intimate, equally at home with folk, blues, jazz, soul, or show tunes. From
track to track, her voice may be reminiscent of Sandy Denny, Joni Mitchell,
Linda Ronstadt, or even Aretha Franklin. Eva was not a songwriter. All of
her songs are covers or renderings of traditional songs. Her gift was not
originality but perspicacity: She had an uncanny ability to penetrate to the
essence of the music and communicate that in her performance. She
shares with Allison Krause an almost painful vocal beauty, simplicity, purity
and lack of adornment or showiness. The instrumental accompaniments
on these mostly studio tracks are almost perfectly suited to her voice in
their simplicity.
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