Songbird - Eva Cassidy

Although this is not my favourite in all 9 releases of her albums this one seems to be the best known. This should be classed as her Greatest Hits album as most of the songs can be found on the other albums – Live At Blues Alley and Eva By Heart. Released in 1998 this CD eventually topped the charts. I have just read the Songbird book that I received and you could not belive how long it actually took for the album to get noticed. After being turned down by the BBC radio station several times, the CD was eventually heard by Terry Wogan who played some songs on Radio 2. He was inundated with e-mails asking who it was singing but she still didn't even make it to ...  Read the complete review

Songird is a collection of songs recorded by the late Eva Cassidy, who tragically died of bone cancer back in 1996. Her music has now been brought to British audiences thanks to airplay on Terry Wogans BBC2 radio show, and more recently, an airing of her version of Garland's classic 'Over The Rainbow', on Top Of The Pops 2, accompanied by a simple video of her singing the song. The album features songs taken from three of Eva's albums; 'Live At Blues Alley', 'The Other Side', and the posthumously released 'Eva By Heart'. The album is a testomony to Eva's musicianship, in which she covers the styles of jazz, gospel, ...  Read the complete review

**THE ARTIST** Eva Cassidy was an American singer/song writer from Maryland. Her unique style was mainly based around blues and jazz, producing some amazingly touching, easy listening tracks for everyone to enjoy. Tragically, this talented musicians life and career was cut short when she died of cancer at only 33. After her death was when her music became more well known gaining her music a lot of fans. It's a shame that she didn't get more time because she would have been hugely sucessful given the chance. So far, 11 of Eva Cassidy's albums have been released: The Other Side (1992) Live At Blues Ally (1997) Eva By Heart (1997) Songbird ...  Read the complete review

Wow, What a truly amazing album. I haven't heard anything quite as moving and vocally powerful as this for a long, long time. The album seems strangely out of place at No. 1 in the UK album charts alongside Limp Biskit, Robbie Williams and Eminem, especially when you see the album cover, a simple photograph against a brown background, reminiscent of 'Tapestry' by Carol King. Yet despite looking out of place, to hear the album you understand it is there by merit and deserves to remain a the top for a very long time. I bought the album after seeing the video of 'Over the Rainbow' on Top f the Pops. It was such a beautiful and moving ...  Read the complete review

Eva Cassidy ~ "Songbird" £8.99 on Amazon and via iTunes Used versions of the album can be purchased for less. I swore to myself about a month ago that I wouldn't review this album, as I had read a review on it on Ciao that I felt I possibly couldn't better, but it is truly a great album that never fails to move me ... not too far, just a couple of feet across the room as if by magic. I haven't trawled back through my "Exceptional" ratings to see who wrote the review and what their comments were, as it would not - in my opinion - allow me to write a review based purely upon my thoughts and feelings if I re-read the piece at this ...  Read the complete review