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I Can Only Be Me

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The album’s title track is a radical reworking of a little-known Stevie Wonder penned song, Eva Cassidy’s musical idol. While it can be easy to argue that much of what made Cassidy’s work so special and so beloved was the simplicity; tasteful, resourceful (real instruments instead of synths) and never flashy, it’s almost impossible to imagine a world in which the tracks on I Can Only Be Me weren’t “meant to be” coupled with strings.

Her guitar/vocal version of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” served as the soundtrack for a recent Kay Jewelers’ national advertising campaign while her unique interpretation of Sting’s “Fields of Gold” urged the public to get vaccinated against Covid-19.

Unable to secure a record deal that didn't compromise her penchant for wide-ranging material, she cashed in a small pension to pay for the recording of her first album, LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY, in 1996. Funded in full by Cassidy herself, using cash from her day job in a plant nursery, it was the second release in almost a decade for Eva, and while the pair didn’t know it at the time, it would be the final record that Eva would ever make. Back in 2001, it was the BBC playing Cassidy's version of "Over the Rainbow" that introduced her to British audiences and ignited a media storm on both sides of the Atlantic. Eva Cassidy’s catalogue of recordings began that day in Chris Biondo’s studio where he, impressed with her talent, asked her to come back so he could record her as a soloist, eventually introducing her to Washington’s “King of Go-Go” Chuck Brown with whom she would make an album. Listening to I Can Only Be Me, where guitar lines have been stripped and replaced by moving arrangements, it’s immediately obvious that Eva Cassidy was one of the great singers of our generation, and the new record has managed to not only capture the essence of Eva, but highlight what made her such an incredible artist from the beginning.

Back in 2001, it was the BBC playing Cassidy’s version of “Over the Rainbow” that introduced her to British audiences and ignited a media storm on both sides of the Atlantic. Eva’s recording career was problematic because her wide musical diversification came into conflict with the record company’s focus. The wonderful, resonant truth about this song is that Eva is the Songbird, singing naturally from the heart – no ego,” says Christopher Willis.To complete this picture, in between Eva's verses, I imagined two birds, represented by two high penny whistles up above the strings. Songbird,” the first track on the new album, will be released by Blix Street Records as a digital single today (November 17) and will be available from iTunes, Spotify and other digital outlets.

The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. But as I went deeper into Eva’s life story and catalogue, I came to understand the extent to which she herself had experimented in the studio and had been looking for new ways to record her songs.VG/EX means that the item's sleeve is in Very Good condition and the disc is in Excellent condition. The Music said that Cassidy was "one of the great singers of our generation" and, rating the album 4/5 stars, added that the release was filled with "beautiful, larger-than-life compositions, deeply rich in texture". Lukes, the 18th century former Anglican London church that currently serves as the London Symphony Orchestra's home, conducted by Chris Egan.

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