Ok for all youse guys who think it’s a sin for a singer to re-do a famous song this entry is about the greatest “cover” artist of all time, Eva Cassidy. Hers is probably the most remarkable posthumous success story in all of popular music. Eva died in 1996 of melanoma a total unknown except around her home base in the Washington D. C. area. She got a recording contract about the time of her death that resulted in her “Live At Blues Alley” cd being released to limited sales. It wasn’t until her 2^nd cd, “Song Bird” came to the attention of the BBC that she became an overnight success with multi platinum sales of the record in the U.K. It’s taken a long time for the U. S. to catch on. “Song Bird” was released in ’98 and just recently went platinum in the states. Her total sales are somewhere around 7 million and climbing. Eva was very shy and shunned the spotlight, so all this success would probably have caused her great anxiety. It's kind of cool how it's all working out.Knowledge of her is largely through word of mouth. Radio in the states isn’t too friendly towards her. My antipathy toward radio would take several blogs to express. She does amazing things with the way she rearranges songs and makes them her own. Some of the American Idol contestants have caught on and used her arrangements to good advantage. The most recent was David Archuleta’s rendition of “Imagine” by way of Eva. He’s been pretty vocal about his admiration for her. Good publicity! Sting’s “Fields of Gold” and Judy Garland’s “Over the Rainbow” are 2 of her signature songs. Sting heartily endorses her version of his song. Judy Garland was very protective of “Rainbow” and hated anyone using it, but many knowledgeable music people prefer Eva’s version to Gralands. Eva could and did sing in about every genre imaginable. She could find the emotional center of a song and touch the heart of the listener. Making grown men cry is her specialty. The picture is from the cover of her latest cd "Somewhere" which was just released on the 26th of August. You're probably wondering how a dead singer can be releasing a new album. Due to her shy nature and being a total perfectionist, she spent long hours in the studio practicing with a tape running and many recordings were made of her live performances. Her family and band members have come forward with tapes they've had in storage for years. With modern technology it's been possible for her label to produce new albums by adding accompaniment and cleaning up these old recordings. It's been 5 years since the last release, so it appears the source material is drying up. It's been amazing to discover how extensive a catalog she created. This latest cd even introduces her as a songwriter. 2 of the tracks are her own material. One required co-writer Chris Biondo to finish. It was a project he always wanted to complete but had to get some emotional distance to take on. I'm anxiously awaiting my copy to arrive from Amazon. I'll tell you more about it after I get it. Anyway, I think she’s great and enthusiastically recommend her.