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Eva Cassidy: Songbird: Her Story by Those Who Knew Her
 
 
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Eva Cassidy: Songbird: Her Story by Those Who Knew Her [Paperback]

Rob Burley (Author), Jonathan Maitland (Author), Elana Rhodes Byrd (Author)
4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)


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Book Description

September 25, 2003
The stirring, full-color oral biography of the singer whose pure, haunting voice came to be loved by millions around the world after her tragically brief life.

Eva Cassidy's albums Songbird, Live at Blues Alley, Eva By Heart, Time After Time, and Imagine have sold over a million and a half copies in the U.S. and millions more worldwide. Her songs have been heard on many television shows and film soundtracks, and the video of her classic performance of "Over the Rainbow" is the most requested in BBC history. Yet she lived to see only one of her solo albums released, a CD she underwrote herself and sold from the trunk of her car before her tragic death.

Capturing Eva's essence and tender life story, Eva Cassidy: Songbird collects the intimate memories of relatives, close friends, and the musicians who collaborated with her. The book tells the story of her too-brief life and enduring music. Featuring candid full-color photos and reproductions of Eva's original artwork, a vivid portrait emerges of a woman who devoted her energies to the things she truly loved-giving encouragement to those around her, tending to plants at the nursery where she worked, and performing her music at clubs in Washington, D.C. She succumbed to cancer at age thirty-three just as the world was starting to notice her arresting voice.

Eva Cassidy's music continues to grow in recognition from critics and legions of fans throughout the world. The rock icon Sting has said her voice possesses "a magical quality. People respond to its purity. It suggests something ethereal-something unattainable." This American edition contains two new chapters about her influences and her posthumous success in her native country. With the publication of Eva Cassidy: Songbird, the woman behind the unforgettable voice will at last be known.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

There is something about her voice-a quality that you can't really put into words. It's a magical quality. (Sting) I believe she will go on to become one of the all-time greats. (Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac) A voice so pure, so strong, so passionate... should have found a home just about anywhere. (Richard Harrington, The Washington Post) She possessed a silken soprano voice with a wide and seemingly effortless range, unerring pitch and a gift for phrasing that at times was heart-stoppingly eloquent. (Alex Ward, The New York Times)

About the Author

British writers Rob Burley and Jonathan Maitland produced a news story about Eva Cassidy for Granada TV in Britain, and did many further in-depth interviews for this book. Elana Rhodes Byrd is an attorney and close friend of the Cassidy family.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 176 pages
  • Publisher: Gotham; 1st ed edition (September 25, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1592400353
  • ISBN-13: 978-1592400355
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.6 x 0.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 15 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #256,739 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Average Customer Review
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61 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Tragic story of an unbelievable talent, October 9, 2003
This review is from: Eva Cassidy: Songbird: Her Story by Those Who Knew Her (Paperback)
If you haven't heard Eva Cassidy sing, then you need to go to your closest music store and pick up her CD, also titled Songbird for an introduction to one of the most underrated beautiful voices I've ever heard. After you hear this music, I guarantee you'll want to buy every one of her CDs that has been released.

There is a power and raw emotional edge to her voice that sends chills down my spine and almost makes me feel as though she is singing directly to me. The tragedy of Eva Cassidy's life is that she was struck down by invasive melanoma at the age of 33 and we are left to wonder what might have been.

Reading this book, which is loaded with family photographs, has helped to fill in the blanks of her life...I wasn't aware that she was also a talented artist. This is just a beautiful tribute to a pure-voiced singer whose life was cut too short.

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43 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful book about a beautiful woman, July 27, 2004
This review is from: Eva Cassidy: Songbird: Her Story by Those Who Knew Her (Paperback)
If you love Eva Cassidy's singing and you want to understand her better as a human being, "Songbird" is definitely a great place to start. Tastefully done, filled with life, friends, laughter, and lots of love, this is a beautiful book about a truly beautiful, talented, strong but vulnerable young woman.

So who was Eva Cassidy? A woman with incredible talent, of course, and the ability to reach millions of people with that talent. But, as "Songbird" so richly details, Eva Cassidy was also a normal, complicated human being. A sensitive, shy person who loved art and nature. A perfectionist who could be extremely hard on herself and -- sometimes -- on others as well. A person who wanted badly to connect with others but found it difficult, even painful, to do so. A person "filled with emotions" but "closed, really closed," as her friend Anna Karen Kristinsdottir described her. A strong woman but also a "shy, afraid little girl that needed to be hugged." An intensely loyal friend. A person with a great future ahead of her cruelly cut down just as she was taking off into the stratosphere.

Although performing in public wasn't easy for Eva Cassidy, thankfully she was able to overcome and share her musical gift(s) with the world. Wow, could this woman sing! From jazz and blues to folk, from gospel to R&B and rock, Eva Cassidy could do it all -- with passion, with love for the music she sang, and with an incredible voice the likes of which don't come along very often.

Some adjectives to describe Eva Cassidy's voice? How about: haunting, gorgeous, inspirational, tear-jerking, powerful, tender, melodic, eclectic, amazing, astonishing, heartfelt, intelligent, poignant, original, awe-inspiring, brilliant. I guess that's enough for starters! And if you think I'm exaggerating, I strongly recommend that, as you read "Songbird," you pause now and again to listen to Eva's versions of "Fields of Gold," "How Can I Keep From Singing," "Over the Rainbow," "Autumn Leaves," "I Know You By Heart," and many others. If those songs -- and Eva Cassidy's life story -- don't send chills up your spine or touch you deeply, then I fear nothing ever will.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Purest Voice of a Complex Woman, July 4, 2008
This review is from: Eva Cassidy: Songbird: Her Story by Those Who Knew Her (Paperback)
Eva Cassidy, it is stated in the beginning of this book, was not an angel. She had the voice of one, as anyone who has heard her sing a note will attest. Struck down by malignant melanoma at the criminally early age of 33 in 1996, she was virtually unknown in America, though her career was starting to gain notice in other countries.

The story of her life is told through the reminiscences of her family and friends. She is universally held to have been a very kind woman, but one with a wall within which she protected herself from pain by not letting too many people in. She had a very difficult time showing her vulnerability, and was extremely fragile in public performance. That we have as much of her on video and CD as we do is a miracle in light of this.

Her relationship with her father was a difficult one, though it seems to have been moving in a more positive direction as she was getting older. Her father himself shoulders some of the burden for this state of affairs, indicating that being his child was probably not the easiest thing. Eva, being such a self-critical perfectionist, might have found it more challenging than most.

I was heartbroken to discover that she loathed my favorite album, Live at Blues Alley. She thought the quality was not present, and it made her angry. This is the one I turn to most often when I need an "Eva Fix," so knowing this made me incredibly sad. But then, she constantly doubted any compliments to her singing. She reacted to positive comments with disbelief more often than not. I'm glad she wasn't a diva, but sorry she didn't have some of the confidence she had earned.

This book is chock-full of candid photos of Eva from throughout her life, and has a great many examples of her sublime artwork. I won't ever be parting with this, because I'll want to page through it again and again, to enjoy her visual talent, as I listen to her sing to me. Her voice has the pure, raw amazing skill to sooth life's rough edges. How sad that we didn't have her for a bit longer, but how blessed we are to have had her at all.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
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Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Over the Rainbow, Eva Cassidy, Blues Alley, Chris Biondo, Chuck Brown, Anna Karen, Ned Judy, Fields of Gold, Method Actor, Nova Scotia, Larry Melton, Wonderful World, Barbara Cassidy, Dan Cassidy, Hugh Cassidy, Blue Note, Grace Griffith, Johns Hopkins, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Easy Street, Ray Charles, Robert Goddard, Ruth Murphy, Aretha Franklin, Cassidy There
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