dont delete, keep this email handy should you ever want a comforting kind soothing serene voice to give you hope or just need a good cry. but have a box kleenex ready in a quiet room before clicking the clips below, it'll take only 60 seconds to melt into it.
Eva Cassidy sings interpretive duets with her guitar in very emotive genre-blending ways. she did her own arrangements, her guitar playing is gorgeous and her vocals soothing, soul searching. she made moving renditions of various covers incl 'Over the Rainbow' with a heartfelt depth that speaks to kindred souls.
she instinctively extracts every drop of meaning and emotion with passion in every phrase. her very unique phrasings draw us into the deeper meaning of the story, the yearning, evokes sadness and solemness yet is also hopeful, inspirational, heart-wrenching and heart-warming at the same time, intimate and transcendent; they take you to another place.
her soulful works are very fitting for life's meaningful events; she is played at weddings, in hospitals and at funerals.
- I had my PBS channel running one Saturday evening and I was standing in my kitchen making a sandwich...and this voice came out of the speakers of my television and I stopped the spreading of my mayonnaise and dropped the knife...the hairs on my arms and the back of my neck stood up on end...
In 1992, she released her first collaborative album, The Other Side, a set of duets with go-go musician Chuck Brown. January 1996 she recorded her only video and a live solo album Live at Blues Alley. At the time of that epic recording, she did not yet know she she had cancer, was diagnosed 5 months later in Jun with terminal stage cancer and died that Nov at 33 before her first solo album was released. It wasnt until 3 years later that her work was 'discovererd' by BBC, she then topped the charts in the UK; has since had three #1 albums and sold 10+ million copies.
- other works of note by some incl Fields of Gold, Songbird, Cheek to Cheek, Time After Time, Ain't No Sunshine, Tall Trees In Georgia and Stormy Monday and her live version of the song Autumn Leaves.
EVA CASSIDY ~ Over the Rainbow
Restored footage of Eva Cassidy performing Over The Rainbow at the Blues Alley jazz supper club in Georgetown, DC, on 3 January 1996. The entire album was done in a single take that night recorded by Bryan McCulle. She died later that year in 1996 of cancer and her first album was released after her passing.
-- I've never in all my life seen/heard a more beautiful, more masterful, more emotionally powerful performance of any song by anyone, ever. Pure magic. If I could watch and listen to only one performance of one song for the rest of my days...
-- Her dynamic range was nothing short of astounding… The pitch control she had from barely above a whisper to full tilt was otherworldly.
-- I had this playing at my wife's funeral today... its a song of hope and inspiration
-- 4 January 2019, my wonderful wife, SYLVIA, passed away, after suffering a severe stroke in 2011. I nursed her and loved her [8 years] right through until her last breath. I often played Eva's "Over the Rainbow" to her, and she would always smile back at me with a squeeze of her hand. This was the final tune at her funeral and will always be remembered.
-- This beautiful woman isn't just a singer. She's also a song interpreter. She makes you listen to all of her covers in a whole new light with deeper meaning.
-- This is absolutely the artist that touches my heart every song she sings...
-- She takes a familiar song, changes almost every note and phrase, and leaves you wondering how it ever could have been any other way.
EVA CASSIDY MAKES GROWN MEN CRY...
first an intl female, then two intl males listen to 'Over the rainbow' on a live podcast stream for the first time, tearing up by the first minute like nearly everyone with a pulse does... the first few do not interrupt the song, but some do pause it to comment and even interrupted the clips can still get tears flowing... that's a powerful magic...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAF37TsegJg
Eva cassidy - Over the rainbow | Reaction by Sarah Dengler
Eva cassidy - Over the rainbow | Reaction by Sarah Dengler
This one left me totally devastated! Eva Cassidy tore me apart with this beautiful heart-wrenching soulful inspirational rendition...
-- You would have to be made of stone not to cry during this piece of utter beauty.
-- Eva took covers and made them her own. You think you know the song until you hear Eva's version.
-- Eva was, arguably, the greatest interpreter of song in musical history. What many do not know is that, what you are seeing, was done in one take on the second night. The first night did not come out usable due to an engineering screw-up. The entire album was done in a single take. She had a cold which might account for the little crack in her voice at the end. She was new to guitar and was quite insecure about her skills. Like all things about Eva, she underestimated herself.
I am unaware of anyone else in history who was able to bring so many to tears listening to this song. No one else made more people stop driving, working, or anything else to just listen to her sing. This version has been played in more hospitals, at more funerals, more weddings.... She was a unicorn... a mythical creature come alive...
-- Every song she left us is a work of art... voice and guitar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qxke2UF0m7I
REACTION | Eva Cassidy - Over The Rainbow - I just lost it completely. This was pure Beauty - Ditymalgia
REACTION | Eva Cassidy - Over The Rainbow - I just lost it completely. This was pure Beauty - Ditymalgia
this is the best rendition i've ever heard... absolutely stunning beginning to end...
-- You don't just hear Eva singing. You feel it.
-- Her voice could turn the hardest person to complete mush, it was her superpower. The first time I heard this cover I was driving on the highway and actually had to pull over, I was sobbing and couldn't see the road.
There are some fantastic documentaries about Eva on YouTube, it gives you a glimpse of the beautiful soul she was and will make you appreciate her even more. There is a book about her as well called Songbird. She was a fantastic painter, the book contains photographs of some of her work, I was even able to purchase one of her prints. Some of my favorite songs of hers are Songbird, Cheek to Cheek, Time After Time, Ain't No Sunshine and Stormy Monday (my personal favorite).
-- You will love her live version of the song Autumn Leaves. It is so beautiful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibN0xP53UKw
She got me - EVA CASSIDY OVER THE RAINBOW REACTION - HarriBest Reactions
She got me - EVA CASSIDY OVER THE RAINBOW REACTION - HarriBest Reactions
she's a singer guitarist that makes the strongest men melt... she really got to me with this song. her voice is so comforting, like a soothing touch for troubled souls in tough times and she plays the guitar the same way...
-- Just days before she died, she sang "What a Wonderful World" in a live performance. She was so weak they had to help her on stage - and that was the song she chose. What a beautiful soul!
-- I cry every time I listen to Eva. The beauty of her voice and her inflections go right to my core. Gets me every time but its food for the soul.
-- You're one of the few that really can appreciate what a talent Eva was. Because most people don't know how good she was on guitar. Her subtle accents were spot on! The emotion she evoked between her voice and her guitar was unmatched. Most all, of her recordings were live. The first time I ever cried because of a song, was when I heard her play Autumn Leaves. I was speechless.
-- Thank you for acknowledging her guitar work immediately along with her vocals. For me, they are inseparable, and indicative of how her entire being was dedicated to interpreting these songs. She was truly remarkable.
-- Thank you for recognizing it's a duet with her guitar...her voice and guitar are just extensions of each other, and both are a voice. Eva breaks us all.
VOCALISTS & Vocal Coaches Admire Eva's Live 'Over the Rainbow' performance
the singers and coaches are analyzing the performance, so tend to pause to comment...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5etU33y6ZYI&ab_channel=KingFamilyReacts
Eva Cassidy - Over The Rainbow REACTION - King Family Reacts
-- Eva's voice rightfully gets all the attention, but her guitar playing is also flawless.
-- Every breath in every offering is simply the most honest, raw, and beautiful moment you will ever hear. Dig it! Autumn Leaves from this same live gig is otherworldly.
-- Her version of 'Autumn Leaves' from the same gig is equally as mesmerising.
-- Eva's voice was a quiet storm, she sneaks up on your emotions and blows your heart wide open.
Eva Cassidy - Over The Rainbow REACTION - King Family Reacts
-- Eva's voice rightfully gets all the attention, but her guitar playing is also flawless.
-- Every breath in every offering is simply the most honest, raw, and beautiful moment you will ever hear. Dig it! Autumn Leaves from this same live gig is otherworldly.
-- Her version of 'Autumn Leaves' from the same gig is equally as mesmerising.
-- Eva's voice was a quiet storm, she sneaks up on your emotions and blows your heart wide open.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg4kxZP_yPM&ab_channel=BrittReacts
For a coming reaction, somebody had mentioned she released Fields of Gold by Sting. Coincidentally, about a year ago, Angelina Jordan released the same song. The two were combined in a virtual duet mashup of Eva and Angelina singing that song together. It is a masterpiece and worthy of reaction.
FIRST TIME REACTING TO | EVA CASSIDY "SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW" REACTION - BrittReacts
she slows it down, every syllable so you can feel everything that is meant to be felt, her guitar playing is gorgeous... her voice/guitar arrangement are phenomenal, deep, solemn, yearning, sweet, gentle, kind,..
-- Eva Cassidy is absolutely captivating and mesmerizing in her vocal delivery! One of the most underrated and sadly unknown singers in the USA! Her stardom came posthumously when she was heard over the airwaves on BBC 2 in the UK two years later! Shortly afterwards, the compilation album Songbird climbed to the top of the UK Albums Chart, almost three years after its initial release.
The chart success in the UK and Ireland led to increased recognition worldwide. Her posthumously released recordings, including three number-one albums and one number-one single in the UK, have sold more than ten million copies. Amazingly the UK brought world attention to this tremendous singer. She should be an American treasure and years later the world has taken notice! I would suggest her rendition of "Fields of Gold " and "Songbird " as other wonderful songs...
-- Nothing else compares to this version. Truly awesome. Makes me cry every time I hear it.
-- She sings this song with such longing. She knows this magical place exists, where your dreams really do come true. She wants to go there, but she can't. Not yet. A few months later, however, she made it over the rainbow.
-- As you said, she slows down every syllable so you can feel everything. Unlike the original by Judy Garland, this one is haunting, especially knowing what is coming to pass. She was not as well known prior to her death but posthumously became an international sensation, selling over 10 million records! On her web page are quite a few other songs, 11 more from this performance, which are some of the only ever recorded of her on video. There is a video not to miss which is about 50 minutes long and is a documentary: The Night That Changed Everything. [see link below] Eva, One of the greatest vocal storytellers of all time.
-- You have now heard one of the most beautiful voices to have walked the Earth. Sting said his song "Fields of Gold" now belongs to her as her rendition made it hers! Her cover of "Autumn Leaves" brings me to my knees.
-- One of the things about this performance that is mostly unknown is that it almost didn't happen. She was nursing a cold and really wasn't up to performing. But, the show must go on. And at less than 100-percent, she gave us a performance that will stand the test of time as one of the most beautiful and sad performances ever.
-- She turned down a major record deal because she preferred to sing the songs she wanted to in the way she wanted and not follow the industry big shots.
-- Eva Cassidy is one of the greatest female vocalists I've ever heard due to her tone, control, phrasing and range and her arrangements and guitar playing brought her songs to another level.
Vocal Coach Reacts - EVA CASSIDY covers "Over the rainbow" - KariSma Performing Arts
Evan Cassidy is definitely one of my favourite vocalists ever, especially when it comes to covering other artists' songs. She is absolutely incredible at making a well known song her own.
Eva Cassidy "Over the Rainbow" REACTION & ANALYSIS by Vocal Coach / Opera Singer
Join professional opera singer Elizabeth Zharoff, as she listens to Eva Cassidy for the first time, performing "Over the Rainbow" in a breathtaking acoustic performance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td5mG_4xp14&ab_channel=EvaCassidy
Mick Fleetwood talking about Eva Cassidy
-- I never will forget the first time I heard Eva....I had my PBS channel running one Saturday evening and I was standing in my kitchen making a sandwich...and this voice came out of the speakers of my television and I stopped the spreading of my mayonnaise and dropped the knife...the hair's on my arms and the back of my neck stood up on end...I immediately went into the living room and sat on my couch watching this beautiful women singing somewhere over the rainbow...the tears started flowing and just chills up and down my spine...
-- I have been singing and playing the guitar since I was 11....been around music my whole life.... hearing her for the first time was a religious experience...
-- What Eva's voice could do with lyrics to the songs she chose to sing made me stop dead in my tracks. I've had many of her songs on repeat through the years as listening to her is so soothing, soul searching, affirming & inspiring. Her delivery seemed so effortless yet the passion was in every phrase. She had me in the palm of her hand from the moment that songbird opened her mouth!
-- I heard her song, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" overhead in a bookstore at Christmas years ago. Her voice gave me chills, stopped me in my tracks.
-- There is not a song she couldn't make her own. She could instinctively extract every drop of meaning and emotion out of a piece of music and give it beautiful wings to fly straight to our souls.
-- Mick describes her so well. No BS, just straight ahead heart from this woman. Look at her eyes, they speak volumes. When I first heard her sing, she reduced me to tears within 30 seconds. As a musician, you just know when you hear it, and you don't hear it that often. There's a top ten, but then occasionally, someone actually transcends that.
-- Eva's "day job" for a long time was working at Behnke's, a local nursery. She was very fond of the place. My late wife worked there too, though not at the same time; I think she heard some stories about Eva. We both loved her music. I feel that you can hear in Eva's performances something elemental and close to nature: "unadorned" but deeply beautiful.
-- The beauty of her voice is so intense its sometimes painful. Whenever I hear her it stops me in my tracks. It makes me happy and sad at the same time. No other artist can make me experience this.
-- I found her utterly spellbinding after hearing just one song coming out of the night in the wee small hours in my truck on a long nights linehaul.
-- Eva's voice gripped and transported me in a way no other singer ever has.
Eva Cassidy - One Night That Changed Everything (documentary) - 50min
-- A singer of this caliber comes to us once in a thousand years. A singer who can sing any genre, an angel voice of this time. I'm so grateful we can still hear Eva. Thank you so much for this documentary. The story is just as important as Eva's music.
-- I've been into music all of my life and have eclectic tastes and played professionally for about 4 years. I've seen hundreds of bands and singers but this woman is the greatest I've ever heard. Never contrived, she just sang from the heart . Eva was gifted beyond belief.
-- My husband & I are musicians, & we were driving thru the night to a gig, listening
to the Vegas jazz station on the radio, and heard just the last part of Over the Rainbow, and it blew us completely away...
to the Vegas jazz station on the radio, and heard just the last part of Over the Rainbow, and it blew us completely away...
-- I remember vividly getting up for work one morning when I heard Somewhere Over The Rainbow on the radio ( thank you Terry Wogan ) I was transfixed by the singer and just stood there motionless till the very end. Never been moved in such a way.
-- I was lucky enough to be at this concert. I consider it one of my peak life experiences. I know that on more than one occasion over the course of that evening, she brought me to tears --tears of sorrow, tears of joy, and tears of pure, fascinated admiration at her stratospheric talent.
-- I've never heard a more beautiful rendition of Autumn Leaves in my 70+ years of listening to music. Definitely one of the best singers of all time.
-- Thank you so much for producing this. I was fortunate enough to work on some Eva's recordings. Chris, thank you for the opportunity. This means alot to me. Very well done. Eva is magical.
-- To my old friend Chris Biondo - this documentary is wonderful. I own copies of most (if not all) of Eva's recorded music. Which you recorded and produced. As you said here you wanted to "try to make sure that she's remembered in the best light." In my completely biased and unprofessional opinion you have succeeded. Well done Chris, and all of you who worked with her, and especially well done Eva. You are remembered in the best possible light.
-- I cried all the way through this...for love lost, for hope gained. I had "Fields of Gold" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" played at my dad's funeral; I had just discovered "Songbird" a few weeks before he passed. Eva is an angel flying among us, continuing to assure us that love transcends all space and time.
-- Lost my mother in law a few years ago, and Fields of Gold was the prime number of her funeral. It's a healing voice. Last week, I buried my father, and Songbird was the prime number we played. And again. Healing and soothing. That's what you call 'soul'. Eva AND her band, you did the world a favor.
-- I needed this so today and find it hard to express what I'm feeling. Listening to her makes me feel less broken. She has calmed the storm raging in my soul for several days.
-- When I hear Eva sing Autumn Leaves it bares my soul. I always feel melancholic as Autumn moves to winter. The piano interlude is like musical tears. I keep her music for those times in my life when I need emotional release.
-- My favorite of hers is Tall Trees in Georgia. All of her recordings sound so personal- I'm so glad I was able to play her for my dad, who was a huge jazz/blues/standards fan. Every so often I'll catch one of her pieces on the Sinatra station on SiriusXM. Just wonderful, thank you all for the documentary!
-- What really comes through in this documentary (I've watched half of it so far as I write this) is how deliberate Eva was in living her life. She knew what she wanted, she chose it, and she did it. The part about her having a job outdoors because that's what she enjoyed summed it up perfectly: no compromises. We can all learn something from that, perhaps. Instead of chasing what people say you should want, stop and work out what you really want. And remember a wonderful voice that burned brightly for too brief a time but lights up the soul whenever it's heard.
-- I am a fan of a tremendous variety of music, with close to fifteen hundred CD's and LP's in my collection and for the past many years, "Live at Blues Alley" is the record that I play the most often.
-- Never in a million years would I have dreamed that I'd get to work with Chris myself. Chris, I have so much respect for you and the way you've worked to honor Eva's memory so beautifully. And Lenny - your white-knuckled solo on Autumn Leaves happens to be one of my favorite solos on anything ever.
-- Wow, what a wonderful 50 minutes! The true testament to Eva's brilliance is to simply watch the expressions on the faces of the 4 guys as they watch and listen again, truly re-appreciating her gift. I still remember when I was introduced to Eva Cassidy, by the owner (David) of a record store. I explained my tastes, and he said I had to hear this particular album, and I had to hear Autumn Leaves first. About 3 seconds after hearing her voice, I said "Sold!"
I've listened to the album many times, and I've always wondered how on earth more people didn't hear the true genius of Eva Cassidy way back when. My personal favorite, after about a thousand listens, is 'Tall Trees In Georgia,' in which her voice absolutely soars in spectacular beauty. This documentary was brilliantly done, and all 4 guys seem so modest yet compelling, and they clearly know that they were a part of something very special.
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