1996年11月，默默無名的Eva Cassidy因為皮膚癌離開人間，當時人們只能在美國華盛頓特區的幾家民謠／爵士Club聽聞此號人物，當年她才33歲。 現在，Eva Cassidy的音樂成為全球市場一致肯定的心靈歌聲，她的「Songbird」專輯在今年三月登上全英專輯排行榜后座，最近更掀起全球搶購，除了亞馬遜'Amazon'佳評如潮登記四月最暢銷專輯之一，英國BBC民選統計的20世紀最偉大歌手名單，Eva Cassidy名列第21位，這股「Eva 熱」連帶使所有Eva Cassidy的專輯一時之間都令愛樂者大舉搜集，在流行歌壇可說是相當罕見的現象，美國權威娛樂周刊雜志也在最新一期大幅報導Eva的種種故事。 或許冥冥中的安排，上天雖然趕著讓Eva早些升天當天使，但Eva Cassidy動人的歌喉卻還是保存下來，五年之后流傳全球，包括在中國臺灣的我們也感染到了，目前包括Power 989等電臺或者是學術網絡紛紛爭相播送感動音符并傳遞Eva的歌聲魔力。Eva的爸爸對她的成功也發表他的心情，「Eva從不想成名，她的熱情都用在歌唱和藝術創作上」，當然，女兒不在身邊仍讓他難過不已，更何況女兒的音樂才情也都遺傳自父母。 Eva的專輯大部分由美國獨立廠牌Bix Street發行，故事是這樣開始，99年BBC電臺的DJ 制作Paul Walters無意從美國友人手上拿到Eva Cassidy 98年的「Songbird」專輯，Paul聽到Eva Cassidy翻唱茱蒂嘉倫〈Judy Garland〉的〈Over The Rainbow〉后，覺得這是第一次有人可以把這首歌唱的毫不遜色原唱，甚至奪走茱蒂的光彩，當時〈Over The Rainbow〉在電臺播送后，馬上席卷英國，BBC接獲數百通電話要求介紹歌曲，因為這是他們聽過最迷人的歌聲，不過一直到去年12月〈Over The Rainbow〉被用在BBC電視臺大量放送并搭上英國慈善活動，完全引爆Eva Cassidy的歌聲魅力，一時之間她的唱片在英國締造銷售奇跡，不少歌迷在推薦Eva時更不忘叮嚀聽她的歌可要準備面紙，很容易聽了就想哭。 事實上，「Songbird」專輯并不是她身前最后的錄音，卻是收錄過去「Eva By Heart」、「Live At Blues Alley」、「The Other Side」三張專輯精華佳作，從第一首現場翻唱Sting的〈Field Of Gold〉開始，每一個Eva唱出的音符，歌詞也好，輕吟也好，都是深切感人，我覺得這已經不是「天籟」〈天籟或多或少遙不可及〉可以形容，因為Eva的歌聲是接近心底，再加上Eva的吉他彈奏，「Songbird」成為一張毫無冷場的佳作無庸置疑。 談到vocal，Eva厲害的是她演繹歌曲的范圍寬廣，在這部分是相當令人驚喜，不管是傳統的流行樂曲、藍調、爵士、民謠、靈魂、福音，她的嗓音變化萬千，可是最難得的是，Eva的隨性和自然可以駕馭每首她要表達的歌，像〈Wayfaring Stranger〉的唱功和情緒的完整，表達她的演唱企圖絕非只是要cover歌曲，Eva Cassidy賦予歌曲全新生命，又如翻唱Fleetwood Mac女主唱Christine McVie的〈Songbird〉她從合聲到彈奏幾乎一手包辦，歌聲透露出清澈心靈的悸動，而演唱靈魂大師Curtis Mayfield的〈People Get Ready〉改以靈魂唱腔再搭上電吉他，整首歌彷佛帶人回到過往時代的細致韻味，〈Oh，Had I A Golden Thread〉的福音能量又如劃過天際的流星閃亮，Eva用她的生命靈魂再唱歌！ 2000年唱片公司推出Eva Cassidy最后的作品輯「Time After Time」，收錄了包括Paul Simon、Cyndi Lauper、Bill Withers、Joni Mitchell等人的經典作，想當然爾，這些經典到了Eva Cassidy的歌聲中又傳唱出不同感覺的貼心感動，也是另一張裘弟要推薦給大家的作品。 Eva Cassidy留著一頭長發，湛藍的雙眼，還有專輯上的插畫作品，實在給世人無限的想念，Eva從不喜歡讓自己商業化，堅持留在非主流唱片，總喜歡在星期天陪著媽媽騎著單車出游，享受自然，就像她的歌聲一樣，Eva唱出彩虹的色彩，而今天全球引發的Eva熱潮證明好的音樂經得起時間考驗。 The heart-tugging story of Eva Cassidy reads almost like the plot of a Movie of the Week tearjerker. A native of the Washington, D.C., area, the painfully shy Cassidy earned a local reputation as a masterful interpreter of standards from virtually any genre, blessed with technical agility and a searching passion that cut straight to the emotional core of her material. Despite the evocative instrument that was Cassidy's voice, record companies shied away from her, unsure of how to market her eclectic repertoire; for her part, Cassidy adamantly refused to allow herself to be pigeonholed, prizing the music above any potential fame. In 1996, just when she had begun to record more frequently on a small, local basis, Cassidy was diagnosed with cancer, which had already spread throughout her body and rapidly claimed her life. But her story didn't end there; her music was posthumously championed by a BBC disc jockey, and amazingly, the anthology Songbird became a number one million-selling smash in England. Cassidy was born February 2, 1963, in Oxon Hill, MD, and grew up (from age nine on) in Bowie, MD. She loved music from an early age, particularly folk and jazz (as a girl, her favorite singer was Buffy Sainte-Marie), and learned guitar from her father Hugh. At one point, Hugh put together a family folk act featuring himself on bass, Eva on guitar and vocals, and her brother Danny on fiddle; Eva and Danny also played country music at a local amusement park, but Eva's sensitivity eventually made performances too difficult on her. Something of a loner during her teens, Cassidy sang with a pop/rock band called Stonehenge while in high school. After graduating, she studied art for a short time, but soon grew dissatisfied with what she was being taught, and dropped out to work at a plant nursery. She sang occasional backing vocals for friends' rock bands around Bowie and Annapolis, but was never comfortable trying to overpower the amplification. In 1986, longtime friend Dave Lourim persuaded Cassidy to lay down some vocals at a recording session for his soft pop/rock group Method Actor. (The results were eventually reissued in 2002.) At the studio, Cassidy met D.C.-area producer Chris Biondo, who was immediately struck by her voice and agreed to help her put together a demo tape she hoped would get her more backup-singing work. Cassidy became a regular presence at Biondo's studio, where he recorded a wide variety of music; incongruously enough, Cassidy performed backing vocals on D.C. go-go funksters E.U.'s Livin' Large album (singing all of her own harmony parts to give the illusion of a choir) and, later, on gangsta rapper E-40's "I Wanna Thank You." At Biondo's urging, Cassidy formed a backing band to play local clubs, where her singing began to win a following in spite of her discomfort. In 1991, Biondo played Cassidy's demos for Chuck Brown, the originator of D.C.'s swinging go-go funk sound (which never really broke out to a national audience). Brown had been wanting to record an album of jazz and blues standards, and found his ideal duet partner in the sophisticated yet soulful Cassidy. Their collaborative album, The Other Side, was released in late 1992, and in 1993, the two began performing around the D.C. area together; helped by Brown's outgoing showmanship, Cassidy finally began to lose some of the insecurity and intense fear that usually kept her away from live performance. Several record labels showed interest in signing Cassidy, but her recorded submissions always covered too much ground — folk, jazz, blues, gospel, R&B, pop/rock — for the marketing departments' taste (or limited imaginations), and the labels always wound up passing. In September 1993, Cassidy had a malignant mole removed from below her neck, and neglected her subsequent checkup appointments. Shortly thereafter, she broke up with Biondo, who'd been her boyfriend for several years; however, they did continue their professional relationship. In early 1994, the Blue Note label showed some interest in teaming Cassidy with a jazz-pop outfit from Philadelphia called Pieces of a Dream; they recorded the single "Goodbye Manhattan" together, and Cassidy toured with them that summer, but didn't really care for their style. She returned to D.C. and began playing more gigs on her own, though she still made the occasional appearance with Brown; at the end of the year, she won a local music award for traditional jazz vocals. Cassidy remained unable to secure a record deal, and Biondo and her frustrated manager decided to put out an album themselves. In January 1996, Cassidy played two gigs at the D.C. club Blues Alley; despite her dissatisfaction with the quality of her performance, the album Live at Blues Alley was compiled from the recordings and released that year to much acclaim in the D.C. area. Sadly, it would be the only solo album to appear during Cassidy's lifetime. She moved to Annapolis and took a job painting murals at elementary schools; during the summer, she began experiencing problems with her hip, which she assumed was related to her frequent use of stepladders at work. However, X-rays revealed that her hip was broken, and further tests showed that the melanoma from several years before had spread to her lungs and bones. Cassidy started chemotherapy, but it was simply too late. A benefit show in her honor was staged in September, and Cassidy found the strength to give her last performance there, singing "What a Wonderful World." She died on November 2, 1996. Cassidy virtually swept that year's Washington Area Music Awards, and the album she'd been working on with Biondo prior to her death, Eva by Heart, was released by Liason in 1997. D.C.-based Celtic folk singer Grace Griffith finally found some interest in releasing Cassidy's music at the label she recorded for, Blix Street. 1998's Songbird was a compilation culled from Cassidy's three previous releases, and when BBC Radio 2 disc jockey Terry Wogan started playing the version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," Songbird started to sell in the U.K. The British TV show Top of the Pops aired a home-video clip of Cassidy performing the song, quite intensely, at the Blues Alley, and were deluged with requests for further broadcasts. Thanks to all the exposure, Songbird steadily grew into a major hit, climbing all the way to the top of the British album charts and selling over a million copies. In 2000, Blix Street followed Songbird with Time After Time, a set of 12 previously unreleased tracks (eight studio, four live) that proved an important addition to Cassidy's slim recorded legacy. The same year saw the appearance of No Boundaries, an unrepresentative set of adult contemporary pop released by the Renata label over strenuous objections from Cassidy's family. Profiles of Cassidy began to appear in American media, including pieces on NPR's Morning Edition and ABC's Nightline. In the summer of 2002, Blix Street compiled Imagine, another set of live recordings and studio demos.