Thank You, Eva ... Eva Marie Cassidy (February 2, 1963 – November 2, 1996) At age 11, Eva began singing and playing guitar in a Washington-area band called Easy Street in a variety of styles at weddings, corporate parties, and pubs. While a student at Bowie High School, she sang with a local band called Stonehenge. During the summer of 1983, Eva sang and played guitar six days a week at the theme park Wild World. Throughout the 1980s, Cassidy worked with several other bands, including the techno-pop band Characters Without Names. In her free time, she explored other artistic expressions including painting, sculpting, and jewelry design. Despite holding a belief in God, Eva was not part of any organized religion. In 1986, Eva was asked by Stonehenge guitarist and high school friend, David Lourim, to lend her voice to his music project, Method Actor. This brought her to Black Pond Studios, where she met recording engineer and bassist Chris Biondo. Biondo helped her find work as a session singer and later introduced her to Al Dale, who would become her manager. She sang back-ups for various acts, from go-go rhythm and blues band Experience Unlimited to rapper E-40. Eva and Biondo, who were in a romantic relationship for a time, formed the five-piece Eva Cassidy Band with Lenny Williams, Keith Grimes and Raice McLeod in 1990. They began to perform frequently in the Washington area. In 1992, Biondo played a tape of Evas voice for Chuck Brown, the Godfather of go-go. It resulted in the duet album ‘The Other Side’ featuring performances of classic songs. Eva’s unwillingness to narrow her stylistic focus to one genre hindered her chances of securing a deal. In 1993, Eva was honored by the Washington Area Music Association with a Wammie award for the Vocalist Jazz/Traditional category. The next year she was invited to perform at the event and chose to sing Over the Rainbow. A Washington Times review of the event called her performance a show-stopper. She took home two Wammies that night, again for Vocalist Jazz/Traditional and also for Roots Rock/Traditional R&B. For a brief period that year, Eva signed a deal with Blue Note Records to pair up with pop-jazz band Pieces of a Dream to release an album and tour the country. She sang two tracks in a mainly instrumental album. It was a musically unsatisfying experience for her. In January 1996, the material for Live at Blues Alley was recorded over a two-day period at Blues Alley in Washington, DC. Due to a technical glitch on the first night of recording, only the second nights recording was usable. Unhappy with the way she sounded due to a cold, she was reluctant to release the album. She eventually relented, on the condition that the studio track Oh, Had I a Golden Thread, Cassidys favorite song, would be included in the release, and that they start working on a follow-up studio album. Her apprehension appeared unfounded as local reviewers and the public responded positively. The Washington Post commented that she could sing anything; folk, blues, pop, jazz, R&B, gospel; and make it sound like it was the only music that mattered. The subsequent studio album she worked on was released posthumously as ‘Eva by Heart’ in 1997. In the liner notes of Eva by Heart, critic Joel E. Siegel described Cassidy as one of the greatest voices of her generation. In 1993, Cassidy had a malignant mole removed from her back. Three years later, during a promotional event for the Live at Blues Alley album in July 1996, Cassidy noticed an ache in her hips, which she attributed to stiffness from painting murals while perched atop a stepladder. The pain persisted and a few weeks later, X-rays revealed that the melanoma had spread to her lungs and bones. Her doctors estimated she had three to five months to live. Cassidy opted for aggressive treatment, but her health deteriorated rapidly. In the early fall, at a benefit concert for her at the Bayou, she made her final public appearance, closing the set with What a Wonderful World in front of an audience of family, friends, and fans. Additional chemotherapy was ineffective and Cassidy died on November 2, 1996 at her familys home in Bowie, Maryland. In accordance with her wishes, her body was cremated and the ashes were scattered on the lake shores of St. Marys River Watershed Park, a nature reserve near Callaway, Maryland.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 09:36:04 +0000
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