Tragically wonderful (Songbird - Eva Cassidy)

Member Name: paule23

Product:	Songbird - Eva Cassidy
Date:	05/04/01 (82 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautiful music, consistently excellent.

Disadvantages: .

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 rendition of a truly wonderful song, I had to track a copy down, and was very surprised to find it showcased in my local Virgin store, but very glad as it made it very easy to find!

Songbird is a complication of tracks from three separate albums. Five tracks are taken from the album 'Eva by Heart' (Wade in the Water, Wayfaring Stranger, Songbird, Time is a Healer and I know you by Heart). Four songs are taken from a live album entitled 'Live at Blues Alley' a showcase of her songs sung accompanied by her own guitar playing (Fields of Gold, Autumn Leaves, People Get Ready and Oh Had I a Golden Thread) with one song, Over the Rainbow, taken from an album of duets with Chuck Brown entitled 'The Other Side'

It was only when reading the insert hat I found out that Eva Cassidy died of cancer in 1996. The album 'Live at Blues Alley' was recorded in January 1996, and Eva returned to Blues Alley in July to promote the albums release, this time walking with a stick due to a sore hip. She was diagnosed with cancer the next month and died on the 2nd November 1996. Only after her death did her records begin to sell insignificant numbers, first in the Washington D.C. area of the USA, across the rest of the country and now around the world.

It really
is a tragedy she is not with us today to share in the success of her music. This is an album of truly beautiful music, not spoiled by synthesisers or multi-tracking. The music is simplicity itself. All the tracks are spine-tinglingly wonderful, particularly those taken from Live at Blues Alley. They are full of emotion and power, and boy could she sing! The songs are all performed acoustically, and have not been extensively remixed, so you really get to hear the power and beauty of her voice. It is rare to get such clarity and natural music on a chart topping album.

This is not an album you are going to play prior to a Friday night out on the town, but whatever your taste in music, be it dance, garage, reggae, pop or indie, there should be some space in your collection for this album, and if there isn't I suggest you make some room! I challenge you not to be moved by some of the tracks on this album, particularly Over the Rainbow and Fields of Gold, especially poignant as she was to lose her life only a few months after they were recorded.

My vocabulary is not extensive enough to do this album true justice. Have a listen for yourself, you will not be disappointed.

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