BLIX STREET RECORDS SCHEDULES NEW EVA CASSIDY COLLECTION OF PREVIOUSLY-UNRELEASED MATERIAL FOR AUGUST 20TH
“Imagine” Set for Simultaneous Release in Both the U.S. and U.K.
On August 20, 2002, Blix Street Records will release IMAGINE, a collection of unreleased material from the late Eva Cassidy. Selected from the archives of the singer’s limited recording output, this new compilation contains a mixture of previously unreleased studio recordings and live performances at clubs in her native Washington, DC area. Hot Records, Blix Street’s distributor in the United Kingdom, will simultaneously release the new album, according to Blix Street President Bill Straw. Given the overwhelming success of her SONGBIRD CD there, which reached #1 on the charts in March, 2001, Hot anticipates an immediate major U.K. chart showing for the new release.
To compile the new CD, Straw combed the vaults for just the right combination of unreleased material. As Straw said in the liner notes for the CD, "IMAGINE continues our tradition of showcasing Eva's genius for mixing and matching musical genres, with an unerring sense of style that literally transcends their differences." “Eva had recorded some of her favorite songs as an audio resume used by her to audition for club gigs,” he says to explain the studio recordings of her solo guitar/vocal versions of the “Tennessee Waltz” and the title cut, “Imagine.”
Also included on the new CD is a recently-discovered recording of the Paul Anka song “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore,” first popularized by Buddy Holly and later recorded by Linda Ronstadt. This, Gordon Lightfoot's folk classic "Early Morning Rain" and the traditional "Danny Boy" were recorded at the now-defunct Pearl’s nightclub in Annapolis, Maryland. Cassidy’s poignant rendition of Sandy Denny’s “Who Knows Where the Time Goes” was recorded live at The Maryland Inn, while “You’ve Changed,” the jazz standard most associated with Billie Holiday, came from the same sessions that yielded Cassidy’s 1996 recording LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY, but was inexplicably not included on that original release. Similarly, her recording of “Fever” is taken from the sessions for THE OTHER SIDE, the duet album she made with Washington’s “king of go-go” Chuck Brown in 1992. Eva's brother, Dan (who first played Bobby "Blue" Bland's version of "Fever" for Eva) added his violin to an Eva "scratch" vocal recorded prior to the finished Eva/Chuck Brown duet which appears on THE OTHER SIDE. Straw says that probably explains why Eva's vocal on this version of "Fever" is more reminiscent of the 1956 Little Willie John original R&B hit than the Peggy Lee pop cover version recorded two years later. Rounding out IMAGINE are “Still Not Ready,” written by Eva’s friend pianist Chris Izzi, and “I Can Only Be Me,” a song Stevie Wonder wrote (but never recorded) for the soundtrack of the Spike Lee film, “School Daze.”
Born in Washington, DC, Eva Cassidy recorded and performed in the area for several years until her untimely death from melanoma in 1996 at the age of 33. She left behind a small, but prodigious canon of recordings that have been meticulously curated and compiled by Blix Street Records, an independent label now based outside of Seattle and distributed by Rykodisc, with the support of her parents, Barbara and Hugh Cassidy.
In April, 1998, Blix Street posthumously released SONGBIRD, a collection chosen primarily from two other Cassidy albums, LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY and EVA BY HEART. It featured Eva’s unqualified signature performance of “Over the Rainbow,” taken from THE OTHER SIDE as well as Sting’s “Fields of Gold,” to which current U.S. Ladies Figure Skating Champion Michelle Kwan has now skated for more than a year. Later that same year, Blix Street also released the complete LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY and EVA BY HEART, the first national exposure for both albums, followed in May, 2000 by TIME AFTER TIME, a new compilation selected from her then-unreleased material.
2001 would see Eva Cassidy become an “overnight sensation” as SONGBIRD reached #1 on the British charts, setting off a feeding frenzy among the media on both sides of the Atlantic. In the U.S., everyone from People Magazine to ABC News Nightline to The Today Show to VH-1 News had weighed in on the Eva Cassidy phenomenon, and by November -- the fifth anniversary of her passing -- SONGBIRD was certified Gold in the U.S. for sales of more than 500,000 units, and triple platinum in England for sales of more than 900,000 units.
IMAGINE represents another glimpse of Eva Cassidy’s vast and varied tastes in music that spanned many genres and eras. To say she could sing anything is not an exaggeration, but a truth borne out by her musical legacy.
* * * * *For further information, contact: Sharon Weisz or Elizabeth Pendleton, W3 Public Relations 323-852-1043 or e-mail: w3pr@yahoo.com
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