I Can Only Be Me

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Her taste and the breadth of her material have continued to propel interest in her finite recorded work all these years later. Surly some nice portraits of Eva could of been used, or save the cost and just provide some poly inner sleeves instead! Two-time Emmy™-winning producer/arranger William Ross, who created the album’s “Autumn Leaves” track, said: “I can’t possibly find the words to adequately express my thoughts and feelings about Eva, one of the most unique, hypnotic, and powerful singers of all time. Eva Cassidy’s original vocal parts have been isolated and accompanied by new arrangements written by Christopher Willis (Schmigadoon!

Marking 60 years since the late singer's birth, I Can Only Be Me celebrates the striking talent of Eva Cassidy with an ambitious project. That album would spawn her now iconic version of "Over the Rainbow," which has been compared to Judy Garland's as a definitive performance of that treasured American classic.Eva worked in a plant nursery by day and played in local clubs around her native Washington, DC by night, developing a loyal following for her intensely personal, highly eclectic musical style.

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. In an interview with The Independent, Cassidy's former bandmate and arranger Chris Biondo shared, "Eva had a fantasy of one day having a full orchestra back her up . However I would strongly recommend and no doubt will become a demo disc for any system and hifi show! Tall Trees in Georgia" is one of Eva's most haunting performances,” explains arranger Christopher Willis.

Songbird," the first track on the new album, has been released by Blix Street Records as a digital single and is available from iTunes, Spotify and other digital outlets. The result is an emotive, atmospheric album, familiar yet different, lush soundscapes accompanying pristine vocals. 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 for new ways to record her songs. Of the “Songbird” track, Christopher Willis commented: “The wonderful, resonant truth about this song is that Eva is the Songbird, singing naturally from the heart. All album tracks are available in hi-res 48kHz/24bit stereo along with Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 immersive audio formats, a first for Eva Cassidy recordings.

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. Christopher Willis and William Ross teamed up to compose new arrangements for some of Cassidy's best loved songs, which have been recorded by none other than the London Symphony Orchestra. 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.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. On a gloomy day in late May 1996, Eva Cassidy and her bandmate Chris Biondo were on the road to a remote factory in rural Virginia with the goal of collecting copies of her new record Live At Blues Alley. 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.

You’ve Changed - which was originally recorded for Eva’s Live At Blues Alley release - manages to retain the original magic that made it so revered, but the genius work of Willis and Ross has elevated it to new heights. 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. Engineer Dan Weinberg, who handled the audio restoration, adds: “Eva’s original vocals stem are basic live recordings with limited audio data for restoration, so we used a multi-stage process of machine learning, with delicate, almost forensic, editing of sounds—from cymbal bleed to the crockery noise of people eating dinner a few feet away from Eva (at the Blues Alley nightclub in Washington, DC where many of Cassidy’s live performances were recorded). 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.There has also been continuing use of her arrangements and recordings on television talent shows such as The X Factor, The Voice, Masked Singer, American Idol, America's Got Talent and Dancing With The Stars.