This FAQ page contains answers to the most frequently asked questions about Eva Cassidy, as well as some others that might be of general interest. The information is correct and may be relied upon. Where applicable, I will include the source. For further information, read the Fact Sheet about Eva, and consider checking out one of the the biographical books about Eva, Songbird. At the bottom of this page, you will find a listing of “frequent errors” I have seen in print! Some of those later inspired me to make a “Five Myths About Eva Cassidy” page.
Is this the “official” Eva Cassidy Web Site?
Answer: No. I guess I could call it that, but I feel strongly that since Eva is not here to give “official” status to ANY web sites, I consider any and all Eva Cassidy-related web sites, including this one, to be “unofficial.” There isn’t an “official fan club” or “official discussion group” or “official Facebook page” either.
How can I get the music and lyrics to the songs on Eva Cassidy’s albums?
ANSWER: I used to say, “The same way Eva got them, by listening over and over again!” She found most of her material on recordings from other artists, then made the songs her own. You will be glad to know that now Eva Cassidy songbooks exist. For more information about those, visit the “Lyrics and Songbooks page.”
How do you pronounce Eva’s first name?
ANSWER: Eva rhymes with “diva.” In other words, it’s EEVE-ah, not Ava. She was named for her paternal great-grandmother, Eva McGrew. Radio people and YouTubers, please stop saying Ava. See the video below, which I created for this specific purpose!
Is any of Eva’s artwork available to buy?
Answer: Yes! In 2004, Eva’s sisters Anette and Margret created a web site at www.evacassidy.com to showcase Eva’s artwork. High-quality prints and posters of several Eva artworks are now available, as well as notecards and some truly essential bumper stickers.
Where is Eva’s home town of Bowie, Maryland?
ANSWER: It’s a suburb of Washington, DC, a few miles east of the city. It even has a Metro station nowadays. By the way, it is pronounced Bowie like the knife, to rhyme with gooey or Lewie, not Bowie like the singer David Bowie, whose name rhymes with showy or doughy or Joey. Other locations could claim Eva as a local. Eva was born at Washington Hospital Center in Washington DC, and lived in Oxon Hill, Maryland, in her early years. At various times she also lived in Upper Marlboro and Annapolis, Maryland.
Was Eva married and did she have children?
ANSWER: No and no. She was not in a romantic relationship at the time of her final illness. The romance between Eva and her producer/bassist, Chris Biondo, had ended a few years previously, but they continued to be close friends and musical collaborators.
I would like to do an astrological chart for Eva. Exactly when and where was she born?
ANSWER: Eva Marie Cassidy was born at Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC, on February 2, 1963, at 10 PM. (Source: I asked her mother)
Did Eva ever perform for large audiences, or was she only ever booked to sing in small clubs?
According to Chris Biondo, the Eva Cassidy Band did play for a few large crowds. They opened for the Neville Brothers at the Filene Center at Wolf Trap Farm Park, they played at “Taste of DC” right after Little Feat (therefore the audience was large), and they played for thousands at the Columbia Arts Festival, with Chuck Brown. Eva’s solo performances were for comparatively small audiences, which Eva actually preferred.
Did Eva ever perform in Europe?
ANSWER: Yes. Eva’s violinist brother Dan Cassidy lives in Iceland and Eva performed with him there. Her maternal grandparents lived in Bad Kreuznach, Germany, and although she visited she didn’t perform there. According to Eva’s mother, she brought her guitar on a holiday in Greece and played and sang there informally.
I love the sound Eva got from her acoustic guitar on tracks like “Fields of Gold.” I just wondered if you knew what make or model guitar she used.
ANSWER: From Keith Grimes, the lead guitarist of the Eva Cassidy Band, came this reply: “Eva’s acoustic/electric steel-stringed guitar was a Guild Songbird, appropriately enough. Its thinner-than-usual body size suited the not-large Eva, so it was physically comfortable to hold all night. The solid body electric she used was a Fender Stratocaster belonging to Chris. She played the Guild straight through the P.A., while the Strat went through a Roland JC-120 amp which also belonged to Chris. On ‘Over the Rainbow’ she played a Gibson ‘Chet Atkins’ model, an electric/acoustic guitar with nylon strings. Most of the stuff she did with the the band was steel-stringed. She never used a pick, she always used her fingers for everything. I hope people aren’t going to go out and get whatever Eva had; Eva was using what she could afford. She did get a good sound out of the instruments she used.” For more information about Eva’s guitars, read the interview with Mike Dove.
When the final mix of “Over the Rainbow” was completed, and Eva, Chris and whoever else was involved in the decision said “yep, this is what is going on the CD,” did anyone, especially Eva, have any idea what a profound effect her rendition would have on so many people? Did they sense that this was a very special recording?
ANSWER: From Chris Biondo: “No. We worked really hard on it but we didn’t think it was very good, at the time. I remember the day we finished it, it was July 18, 1992. We were really tired when we finished it. It was just Eva and I, we didn’t think it was very good, Chuck Brown called and we said ‘Come on over, we want you to come to a party with us,’ we went over to a friend of Eva’s and had a jam session in the basement…. Eva had been singing that song for years, she had already recorded it once when she was in high school. I remember we were driving to Ikea Furniture one day, she pulled out a cassette and she wanted me to hear ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow.’ And when we’d go places she would sing it in the car. A couple of times I had to pull over, I was crying so hard, it was brutal. I’m immune to it by now though. People used to ask to hear that song a lot. The hard part for her wasn’t singing it, it was playing the guitar part all the way through without making any mistakes. It was all her own version. There was a note she changed that was really good, the word ‘far,’ she changed the note, it’s better than the way Judy Garland sang it.” For more information, read my article about “Over the Rainbow.”
Guitarist Keith Grimes told me that he was floored when he first heard the “Over the Rainbow” recording a day or so after it was finished. The band was working hard to complete all the tracks for THE OTHER SIDE, and he remembers telling Eva, “You little stinker! This is going to be the best thing on the album!”
Did Eva ever meet Sting, and was he aware of Eva’s interpretation of “Fields of Gold”? I am intrigued at this thought and wonder if he knew Eva’s beautiful recording.
Answer: No, Eva never met Sting. You have to remember that she was very, very unknown during her lifetime. The only times she was heard outside the Washington DC area were when she was performing with her brother Dan in Iceland, and on a brief U.S. tour with “Pieces of a Dream.” She didn’t move in the musical circles that would introduce her to somebody like Sting.
Here are some instances where Sting commented on Eva’s recording:
- Years after Eva’s death, Sting did hear her recording of the song. In an article “Robin Young: Forever Catching Fireflies in a Bottle” by Laura Bernieri, we learn that “Robin was able to get Sting to listen to Eva’s rendition of ‘Fields of Gold.’ She has him on camera saying that he was quite territorial about that song, arrogant even, only to be brought to tears by her totally different vocal interpretation.” Robin Young is exploring the possibility of producing a documentary about Eva in the future.
- Sting gave this statement to Richard Harrington of the Washington Post, who kindly gave me permission to reproduce it here: “A friend of Eva’s sent me the recording after her death, I thought it was a beautiful rendition. I’ve rarely heard a voice of such purity. I was deeply sorry to learn of her death and somehow it gave the song another emotional level. I was very happy the work saw the light of day. It’s an extraordinary success.”
- Here’s another Sting quote about Eva. I’m not sure where it came from: “I heard this voice and it was so beautiful, so pure. And the next thing I hear, it’s almost a year later, and Terry Wogan is playing it on Radio 2. Then lo and behold, it’s number 1 in England and I’m happy for her. Even though it’s a sad tragic story, it has kind of a poetry about it.”
- One more Sting quote: “Blue Skies Chris” sent me this one. It’s from an interview done by David Jenson a Radio DJ on Capital Gold (an Independent London station playing “old” music).
DJ: Eva Cassidy sang “Fields of Gold.” As a songwriter, it must be the greatest compliment when others want to sing your songs?Sting: I remember being sent this song by a friend of hers – it was long before the success – and she explained how her friend had died and how she would have loved me to hear the song. I was almost in tears because it’s such a beautiful version. It then became this huge hit, but I was saddened that she didn’t live to see her success. I was proud to be the writer of the song. It’s a song about continuity and having romantic love turn into something more romantic and more mellow.’
When was Eva’s music first played on the radio?
I don’t think anybody knows for sure, though one of these days I’ll talk to Tom Goldfogle of Liaison Records to ask if he has any recollection. A good guess would be that some of the duets from the album THE OTHER SIDE with Chuck Brown, who was a very big star in the Washington DC area, were broadcast at the time of that CD’s release. If I had to speculate where Eva’s solo music first was played, I’d go with folk DJ Mary Cliff and her “Traditions” show (then aired on WETA-FM). But of course it was radio airplay in the United Kingdom that really made a difference in the Eva Cassidy story. I hear that BBC radio announcers are practically bickering over who “discovered” Eva Cassidy on behalf of BBC Radio 2! Was it Mike Harding, Terry Wogan, or Bob Harris? I have been investigating, and the answer is… none of the above. Paul Jones was actually the first to put Eva on BBC 2, with “Wade in the Water” on his blues show (yes, it’s the same Paul Jones we remember from the 60’s band Manfred Mann.) The following week, Mike Harding was the first to play “Fields Of Gold.” Very shortly thereafter, Paul Walters and Terry Wogan introduced Eva to the audience of the most-listened-to “Wake up with Wogan” program and Bob Harris brought her voice to the discerning listeners of his eclectic Saturday night show. Thanks, gentlemen, you are all wonderful!
A young friend of mine, who had to cope with illness recently, wonders what kind of cancer Eva died of, what kind of treatment she received, and how it affected her performing.
Answer: Eva had melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. A few years before she died she had had a malignant tumor removed from her back, but it didn’t worry her and nobody thought any more about it, though she did go to her follow-up appointments (contrary to myth). Around the time LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY was recorded, she was able to quit her “day job” at a landscape nursery and devote herself mostly-full-time to her music. In addition she worked part-time painting murals on the walls of elementary school cafeterias. When her hip started to hurt, she attributed it to spending too much time on stepladders. She began to walk with a cane and sat more than she stood when she performed. Finally she got X-rayed, and it turned out that the hip was broken. The cancer had returned and spread throughout her body. Though the prognosis looked poor, she began aggressive chemotherapy and radiation treatment at Johns Hopkins (one of the best cancer centers in this country). I don’t believe she performed again in public after she began the treatment, except to sing “What a Wonderful World” at the tribute concert a few weeks before she died. We were glad that she was able to stay at home (her parents’ house in Bowie) for her entire illness.
What was Eva’s last performance?
Answer: Her last public performance was at the tribute concert at the Bayou (a club in Georgetown) on September 17, 1996. She sang “Red Top” with Chuck Brown, and “What a Wonderful World.” Note, this is NOT the rendition you hear on the album. Her last performance with the members of the Eva Cassidy Band was at Borders in Fairfax, Virginia, on August 2, 1996, when they were promoting the LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY album. Her last singing was probably in the living room of her family home in Bowie, when Grace Griffith and Marcy Marxer came over to visit, and ended up spending an afternoon making music with Eva and her brother Dan and her father Hugh Cassidy. I think Eva’s friend Elaine Stonebraker sang with her during that time period as well.
What is the history behind the Blues Alley video clips?
Answer: Eva’s friend Bryan McCulley videotaped Eva at Blues Alley in January of 1996, during the recording of the live album. Using hand-held video camcorder equipment, he videotaped some of the performance on both nights. He says, “It was never shot to be shown as a music video, but hey, it’s all we’ve got. It is pretty decent footage though. I wanted to document the making of the Blues Alley CD, so that’s why I went out and videoed it. It would make great documentary footage.” The master tape from the recording session was synched up with the video for better sound quality. When the “Over the Rainbow” clip was shown on “Tops of the Pops 2” for the second time, the caption stated that it was the “most requested clip in TOTP2 history”!
Which album has the a cappella version of “Amazing Grace” which Bruce Lundvall talked about on “Nightline”?
Answer: Oh, wasn’t that a teaser! Unfortunately, “Amazing Grace” isn’t on any of the albums. Eva did perform the song regularly, with guitar accompaniment.
Did Eva have ‘perfect pitch’?
Answer: From Chris Biondo – “No, she didn’t.” Perfect pitch, also called absolute pitch, is the rare ability to identify a musical note without reference to another note. The ability is unrelated to musicianship, but it can come in handy for singers!
What is the highest note on any of Eva’s recordings?
Answer: This answer comes from Lenny Williams, the keyboardist for the Eva Cassidy Band. Lenny has “perfect pitch” and was therefore considered best-qualified to make this determination. My thanks to Eileen White, who researched this one and wrote it up as follows:
‘I cornered Lenny tonight in search of an answer to the Eva’s Highest Note question. And the winner is… the Mother’s Day Rap, “This Is For My Mother.” Here are the details:
— “How Can I Keep From Singing”: High note is A5 (A below high C).
— “Golden Thread”: High note is also A5.
— “God Bless the Child”: High note (“Papa”) is another A5.
— Niki Lee’s song “November”: Eva is singing alto on Niki’s song, but she hits some high notes also. The highest is an A5.
— “This Is For My Mother” by JuJu House: High note is E6, the E above high C. Amazing. Lenny said this is in “Minnie Riperton range.”
Lenny also said that the A’s are full voice, while the E is falsetto.’
Where was Eva buried? I would like to visit her grave.
Answer: Eva’s ashes were scattered at a favorite spot near the Chesapeake Bay, at a friend’s property in St. Mary’s County, Maryland.
All the songs on Eva’s albums were written by someone else. Did Eva write songs?
Answer: Eva was an interpreter, not a songwriter. She once told me that she had tried but her songs weren’t any good. Of course she didn’t think she was a very good guitar player either, and she was great, so I wish I had heard some of those songs. See below, however, for information on a song Eva co-wrote, and details about one of Eva’s poems.
What is the history of the song “Hear” that is a duet with Mary Ann Redmond?
Answer: “Hear” is a different version of the song “Somewhere” that is the title song from the SOMEWHERE album. You can read more about the “Somewhere” version here. Here’s information about the “Hear” version, from Chris Biondo: “When Eva and I first got together, we made a list of things we wanted to do together — trips we wanted to take, things we wanted to learn, projects we wanted to do. One of these was to do a song like “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel, in the same kind of musical style, using it as a point of departure for the instrumentations and the vibe of the song, which is melancholy and anthemic. I put the music together in my basement, just with a synthesizer and drum machine, and gave the song to Eva to write the lyrics. After she recorded the vocals she was happy with the chorus but she didn’t like the verses. We didn’t have a good lyrical flow, and the verses weren’t as strong as the chorus. So we never finished it, we just put it away as an experiment that worked only about 70%.
I thought that vocally what Eva did with the chorus was magnificent. The words she wrote express her confusion about people being evil to each other, that’s what I get out of it.
The year Eva died, Mike Schreibman of the Washington Area Music Association called to ask if there was anything of Eva’s they could put on that WAMA sampler album. That song was the only piece of music that didn’t fit stylistically with the rest of Eva’s recordings, so I didn’t even consider it for EVA BY HEART, but I thought it might work on the sampler. I called the Cassidys to ask about it, and Barbara said ‘Fine.’ She came over to listen to it, and was very emotional when Eva’s chorus came in.
I asked Mary Ann Redmond if she would write new verses for the song, both words and melody. That was a nice thing for her to do, it was an emotional time, it was a gift she was giving in Eva’s honor to WAMA. Nobody got paid for it. She recorded the verses and sang harmony with Eva on the chorus. Mary Ann is a great, great performer.”
The lyrics of the chorus are as follows:
Somewhere, somehow
At some time someone cared
Maybe just for a moment
Or maybe for a lifetime.
Are the threads that bind us together
Falling loose or growing stronger?
Look at it now
Look at the picture
Has it changed
Or is it still the same?
I am very interested in the “Springtime” poem which is on the TIME AFTER TIME album insert. How can I read the entire poem and any other poetry of Eva’s?
Answer: Eva didn’t actually write much poetry and didn’t consider herself a poet. The “Springtime” poem was written for a friend, and the first part of the poem contains mostly personal references, for instance to her friend’s dog and cat. The second part of the poem is the only section that will be published. Here is the excerpt from TIME AFTER TIME:
…and isn’t it a miracle that crocuses bloom?
And you can banish cat hair with a sweep of a broom?
And that daffodils and children have the same kind of smile?
And you can take off your shoes and splash in water for a while?
That you can hear angels in the cooing of a dove,
Or give a person something, simply out of love,
And that God will paint colors on the clouds for us to see
And that we can watch together, you standing next to me.
What did you think of the Songbird biography?
Answer: It made me cry, but I loved it. I decided not to write a formal review on my web site because I realized that my reaction to the book is going to be very different from that of people who didn’t know Eva. For me, it was like looking through a family scrapbook — “Wasn’t Uncle Hugh handsome?” and “That photo was taken at our house at Christmas” and “I’d forgotten all about Eva’s boyfriend Thurston!” For more information about the book, by the way, follow this link. The book doesn’t go into much detail about Eva’s recordings, which seems like an odd omission, but the many in-depth articles on this web site can fill the gap. I was unable to participate in the book project because the authors only wanted to do face-to-face interviews; I had a new baby and was only willing to do a phone interview.
What were Eva’s religious beliefs?
Answer: Eva wasn’t a churchgoer, as an adult, but I think of her as a spiritual person. Her choice of music tells a lot about her beliefs, wouldn’t you agree?
I’ve been hearing a lot about an album called “Live at Pearl’s.” What is this?
After Eva’s death, copies of this cassette tape circulated among her friends and family. Later, several of these tracks were included in the albums IMAGINE, AMERICAN TUNE, and SIMPLY EVA. Some of Eva’s fans have been sharing copies of the “Pearl’s” tracks (several generations of copying away from the original). These copies definitely fall in the category of “bootlegs” and I do not endorse such distribution. Personally, I would be thrilled if eventually a full LIVE AT PEARL’S album is created, so that Eva’s fans can share in the vocal magic Eva created that night, legally and morally and with the best sound possible. In the meantime, I feel that people who are distributing bootleg recordings of any artist, including Eva Cassidy, are essentially stealing something that is valuable and does not belong to them. My biggest concern is that if all Eva’s fans have bootleg copies of this material, it will be increasingly less likely that a PEARL’S album would ever be legally produced.
Who are you and why do you have this web site?
Answer: See the “About This Web Site” page.
Is Eva Cassidy related to David Cassidy?
Answer: No. She is also not related to Shaun Cassidy, David’s half brother, or their father Jack Cassidy, or Hopalong Cassidy either! Genealogically, we know she is descended from Hugh Cassady or Cassidy who emigrated from Ireland around 1804, but his birthplace in Ireland is unknown. Historically the name originates in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. (For the hardcore genealogy buffs among you, I will add that she is also descended from Irish and German Quakers who came to North America in the 17th century, including the “Germantown Thirteen.”)
What is Eva’s father’s favorite Eva song?
Answer: When I asked him once, he said “Wayfaring Stranger.” He has given a different answer to other people upon occasion. Eva’s mother Barbara once told me her favorite is “I Know You By Heart,” but I suspect she does not listen to it often.
What are Chris Biondo’s favorite Eva songs?
Answer: I asked him. It turns out that “Waly Waly,” “I Know You By Heart,” “American Tune,” “Anniversary Song,” and “Time After Time” are Chris’s top five, in no particular order, except that “Waly Waly” is #1. “Especially the second verse, the verse about the boat,” he said. Chris says that over the years he has finally become “immune” to “Over the Rainbow.”
Ever since you mentioned Mary Chapin Carpenter on the “What’s New Page” some while ago, I`ve become very interested in her music. Did Eva and MCC have contact or ever perform together? They would certainly have provided a formidable event together at a concert !
Answer: MCC has been a wonderful ambassador for Eva’s music, hasn’t she? MCC, like Eva, is a native of the Washington area. Her song “My Heaven” mentions Eva: “More memories than my heart can hold/ Eva’s singing ‘Fields of Gold.’ But Eva and MCC never met. There was a link between them in guitar technician Mike Dove, who was always talking about Eva Cassidy and encouraging people to come hear her, but the direct connection never happened. I am sure it would have, eventually. Eva’s LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY came out at the beginning of the summer of 1996, and when it started to get a lot of attention locally, all sorts of opportunities seemed to be opening up for Eva. By the end of the summer, however, Eva was very ill.
This question was posted in the Yahoo group. “We need an opinion from someone close the source. Would Eva with her love of ballads have approved of a ballads only album, or would she have preferred a varied, non-pigeonholed approach? What format would Eva herself have chosen if she had been given carte blanche as to how the albums were compiled?”
Answer: I asked Eva’s producer, Chris Biondo. He replied, ‘A lot depended on what Eva was listening to that week! A more acoustic-oriented album is where she was headed, but I think EVA BY HEART is basically how Eva would have made a record. Every song that was on there, she picked herself, they were all songs she wanted to do, and they were all different — “Blues in the Night,” “Nightbird,” “Wayfaring Stranger,” “How Can I Keep From Singing.”‘
Is there anywhere I can buy Eva’s Gran’s writings?
ANSWER: Eva’s grandmother, Clara Cassidy, considered herself a “late bloomer” because she waited until she retired at age 65 to pursue her lifelong dream as a writer. She became a newspaper columnist who wrote wise and witty essays of advice on retirement and aging. Many of these columns were collected into self-published booklets which were advertised in her newspaper column; people would write to her to buy them. But some were distributed in other ways. I have seen some of her essay collections through Internet book-find services such as Bibliofind and Advanced Book Exchange. She also wrote two children’s books that were published as Little Golden Books, and one of them, WE LIKE KINDERGARTEN, was reprinted for many years. At some point I would like to reproduce some of her essays on my web site. Many of them are illustrated with Eva’s drawings. Some titles to look for are “Up In Years (…and off my rocker),” “Still Off My Rocker,” and “Stay Off That Rocker.” Others are “Living The Topmost Years,” “How to Create a Braided Rug,” and “I Remember, Do You?”
Did Eva ever sing any Grateful Dead songs?
Answer: Chris Biondo says he never heard her sing any Grateful Dead songs. Someone has pointed out that the Grateful Dead have a recording of “Early Morning Rain,” but I think Eva would have considered that a Gordon Lightfoot song.
Did Eva Cassidy record any Christmas or holiday songs?
Answer: Yes! Learn more on the Christmas Page.
I hear there is an Eva Cassidy recording of “Golden Slumbers” with Jackson Browne. Where can I find out more?
Answer: I had to do some research to find out for sure. Eva never recorded this song. There is a Jackson Brown/Jennifer Warnes duet of this song, and in at least one place on the Internet, the female singer is misidentified as Eva. It isn’t. Sorry! Chris Biondo says that Eva always intended to record “Golden Slumbers,” possibly in a medley with “Across the Universe,” but they never got around to it. (Eva did, of course, record two other songs with “gold” in the title — “Golden Thread” and “Fields of Gold.”)
Did Eva learn the song “Dark End of the Street” from the movie “The Commitments” (1991)?
Answer: Chris Biondo says “Dark End of the Street” was brought in by Keith Grimes, and Eva was doing it before “The Commitments” came out. It’s on the album THE OTHER SIDE, and some editions of EVA BY HEART.
Did Eva record “Moon River”?
Answer: Again according to Chris Biondo, she didn’t record it, and he never heard her sing it.
Message from the webmaster :
I’ve found a great deal of misinformation about Eva in various places. Here are a few corrections I feel the need to make, for one reason or another. See also the Five Myths page. Journalists, take note! If you reproduce these mistakes, you haven’t been doing your homework:
- This is my “pet peeve”: EVA DID HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE! When she left her job at Behnkes Nursery she joined the musicians union (D.C. Federation of Musicians, Local 161-710), and signed up for group medical insurance through the union. I feel it is important to mention this because it is one of the many excellent reasons for musicians without “day jobs” with benefits to join their local unions. The issue of health insurance must seem odd to people outside the United States, but regrettably it is a Big Deal here. (source: Cassidy family, Chris Biondo, personal knowledge)
- Eva didn’t cash in her mortgage to make LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY; she never had a mortgage. She did borrow against her credit cards (source: Cassidy family, and Chris Biondo)
- The correct name of Eva’s producer/bassist is Chris Biondo, *not* Biondi. His father is a retired civil servant, not a lawyer. (source: Chris Biondo)
- Eva’s brother Dan is no more a “folk fiddler” than Eva was a “folk singer” — like his sister, he enjoys a range of musical styles, including jazz. In no sense could he be considered to be part of the “egotistical world of the music industry” (in Iceland?!?) (source: personal knowledge)
- To the best of my knowledge, Eva didn’t sing any of Elton John’s music, I’m not sure where this misinformation even came from
- Eva was NOT “dying” when she recorded LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY. None of the songs on any of the albums were recorded after the cancer was diagnosed (source: Chris Biondo)
- Hugh Cassidy, Eva’s father, was not a music teacher except within his family. Now retired, he formerly taught “special education” students in the local public schools (source: Cassidy family)
- I am Eva’s cousin, not her aunt. My mother is Eva’s Aunt Isabel (source: personal knowledge)
- The recording of “Over the Rainbow” on the SONGBIRD CD is *not* the same rendition as the video recently seen on “TOTP2.” Eva’s studio recording is on the albums, and the video was taken at Blues Alley, the same night the live album was taped (it is on the SIMPLY EVA album)
- The “Over the Rainbow” video clip is *not* the only video footage ever made of Eva performing (though it is much better quality than any of the other videos I have seen). See above for more information (source: personal knowledge)
- I have it on good authority that Eric Clapton’s singing of “Over the Rainbow” in London was *not* a tribute to Eva Cassidy. It was evidently “Judy’s version” and he performed it for personal reasons unrelated to Eva. There’s no reason to believe that Clapton has even heard of Eva Cassidy (source: a relative of Mr. Clapton)
- When Eva came to the tribute concert at the Bayou nightclub in Washington, DC (not at Blues Alley), she used a walker. Weak as Eva was, she did not have to be carried. And she wore a rather elegant cap on her head, not a bandana (as viewers of the 2001 Today Show segment can confirm) (source: personal observation)
- A correction from Eva’s father: The face of the angel sculpture in his garden is not clay, it is aluminum that was recycled from soda cans. He says he sculpted it in clay and made a cast in aluminum (source: Hugh Cassidy)
- The Eva Cassidy Band was not a regular act at Blues Alley. They were delighted to be booked to perform there several times, however (source: Chris Biondo)
- Even in the Washington DC area, Eva was *not* well-known to the public before the flurry of publicity connected with her illness and death. On many occasions I would go to hear her perform and see mostly-empty tables. Guitarist Keith Grimes once observes, “We were beyond obscure.” I know this is hard for you to believe! The lesson here is to GET OUT THERE AND HEAR LIVE MUSIC! Not just the big international acts, go to the folk coffeehouses and the dingy little bars and clubs, and see what talent is out there undiscovered. Tell them that Eva Cassidy sent you! As Jeff D. wrote in the guestbook, “The fact that you won’t hear another Eva Cassidy shouldn’t deter you — there has never been another Eva Cassidy — but there will be someone else.”
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