The Songbird whose voice still soars
A new album of songs by Eva Cassidy, who died 12 years ago, is due for release. John Meagher spoke to her parents
Hugh and Barbara Cassidy, parents of deceased singer Eva Cassidy, left, with the angel sculpture Hugh made of her at their home in Shady Side, Maryland
Friday August 29 2008
The songbird is singing again. Almost 12 years after the death of American singer-songwriter Eva Cassidy, her eighth album is being released.
Somewhere contains 12 previously unreleased songs spanning a wide range of genres, from country to blues as well as two co-written by Eva herself.
In her lifetime, her talents were only partially realised. She released her first album The Other Side -- a set of duets with funk musician Chuck Brown -- in 1991, followed by a live solo album, Live at Blues Alley, in 1996. Both came out on small labels and neither troubled the charts -- or the critics.
Although she had built up a sizable local following, she was virtually unknown outside her native Washington DC when she died of cancer in November 1996. She was 33.
Three years earlier she had had a malignant mole removed from her back. Then, during promotional work for Live at Blues Alley, she experienced a persistent ache in her hips.
X-rays revealed that the melanoma had spread to her lungs and bones. She was given three to five months to live. The singer opted for aggressive treatment, but her health deteriorated rapidly. In her final public performance in September 1996 she closed the set with What A Wonderful World in front of an audience of friends, fans and family.
Although she treated her talent as a hobby rather than a serious profession, her reputation spread internationally and exponentially to include such fans as Paul McCartney and Eric Clapton. Even Ozzy Osbourne says he was moved to tears when he first heard Cassidy's voice.
A 1998 compilation album, Songbird, became a sensation in Ireland and Britain when it was released -- helped in no small way by the enthusiasm of Terry Wogan. Her achingly wistful interpretation of Over The Rainbow and a reworking of Sting's Fields of Gold tugged on the heartstrings.
Eva's parents Hugh and Barbara Cassidy manage her estate and are responsible for each release of new material. This is the first Eva Cassidy album in four years.
Barbara -- whose German accent is still intact despite spending most of her life in the US -- is glad fans will now have more of her daughter's music to enjoy. But for her, listening to one of the albums can be a painful experience.
"It is so hard to lose a child and listening to her voice can be really upsetting, because she is not here anymore," the former horticulturalist says from her Maryland home.
"But in a way she lives on through the songs and hearing some of them takes me back to a specific place and time. Part of me still can't believe that she passed away, because when I hear her singing it's like she's in the room next to me."
Her husband, Hugh, a retired special education teacher who dabbles in art and music himself, also has special moments with his daughter's music.
"A lot of people have written to us to tell us how they have been affected by hearing her sing and I can understand that, because there is such real emotion in her voice."
Hugh Cassidy -- his ancestors hail from Fermanagh -- taught his daughter how to play the guitar and says one of her strongest points as a musician was her ability to reinterpret classics.
"Take Over The Rainbow as an example -- she made it live again by completely reinventing it. With Eva, the words become more poignant," he says. "She had a way of singing that really makes the listener conscious of what's being sung, and that's not always the case with other musicians."
Eva was the third of Hugh and Barbara Cassidy's four children. All sang when they were growing up and one of her brothers is a professional folk musician, living in Iceland.
Somewhere won't be the last Eva Cassidy album. As with other talents who die young -- Jeff Buckley, for instance -- yet more material seems to surface from the ether, much of it of suspect quality. In fact, Hugh admits that some will consider the songs on Somewhere to be "minor" compared with those on Songbird.
According to her father, there is another stockpile of her material for maybe one more album, and then possibly a collection of out-takes.
"My wife and I are often asked if there is more material, and there is; some great songs, including a cover of the Bette Midler song The Rose.
"It's something the fans really want to hear. Eva was shy, but she liked people to listen and to have a shared experience through music. I'm sure she would be delighted with the way her music has had such an impact after her passing. But she never wanted fame in her life. She was happy if people liked her music. I don't think she ever imagined reaching so many people."
For Hugh, her death was especially difficult to accept because his relationship with his daughter was not as close as he would have liked.
"My wife and Eva were especially tight, but I was never graced with that privilege. When you have teenagers it can be difficult if you're the father. Sometimes you get along and other times you don't. We never got to the place where I would have liked us to be and I have great regrets about that. She was very much her own person, very single-minded.
"But I believe in an afterlife and I feel I will meet her again." There is absolute conviction in his voice.
His faith is shared by Barbara. "I truly believe I will see Eva again. What is the point of this world, of existence, if we just go through life and there's nothing more?"
Somewhere is out now.
- John Meagher
