ARTIST: Eva Cassidy

ALBUM: Time After Time (2000)

Absolutely, hands down... awesome! Tears of joy & sorrow are hard to fight back while listening this one, and I haven’t been that strong on a couple of occasions. I’ve always liked the “Eva By Heart” album most, but as I sit here listening to “Time After Time”, I can’t help but say this collection has become my favorite. There’s a real purity & intimacy about this album, since many of the tunes are stripped down to feature Eva’s acoustic guitar and vocals. The raw emotional simplicity captivates me the most, and 4 of the tracks from live performances, showcase Eva & her band at their height of great performances. The pure beauty of Eva’s music is that it transcends all boundaries, is uplifting, has remained virtually unscathed and is a great remembrance of her musical integrity, ability and soul. She chose songs to sing based on her pure love of those songs, their lyrical content and how they made her feel. Her power is in the way she internalized and transformed each and every song into to her own unique and dynamic expression. I’ve always thought that it’s nearly impossible to perform a song better than the original artist who created it, but when I listen to her renditions of Time After Time & Fields of Gold, for instance, I really feel Eva’s interpretation and don’t care to hear Cindi Lauper’s or Sting’s versions ever again. Fortunately, this has been the effect of her music on the right people and, currently, on millions. Slowly but surely, she is touching the lives of more and more people around the world.

Having worked with Chris (Biondo) and the other members of Eva’s band on my album, I’ve been lucky to be “a fly on the wall”, on several occasions, and it’s awesome to see what happens when her name comes up in discussion. I’ll never forget, on one occasion in the studio, during the making of Eva’s “Time After Time” album, when Chris pulled out a tape of one of her intimate vocal performances and proceeded to tell me how whenever he plays the song it’s hard for him to hold back his emotions, so he had to warn me ahead of time how “heavy” the tune was for him to listen to. Talk about “HEAVY”....... it was simply mesmerizing!

If you haven’t already experienced Eva’s talent, just listen to any of her vocals and you’ll realize she’s one of the most dynamic, amazingly soulful, and incredibly gifted people you’ve ever heard. I can’t finish this “11 star” review without giving extreme “kudos” to Eva’s family, whom I’ve never met, and the Eva Cassidy Band for upholding her personal and musical integrity, amazing talent and her spirit. They knew... and still know, they have an angel in their midst.