Eva Cassidy 'Acoustic' collection coming from Blix Street Records on January 15

Tomorrow will see the release of an acoustic album from legendary genre-defying singer Eva Cassidy...

For Immediate Release January 14, 2021

BLIX STREET RECORDS TO RELEASE  EVA CASSIDY ACOUSTIC ALBUM ON JANUARY 15 AS LEAD TRACK---“TIME AFTER TIME”—UNDERSCORES  KAY JEWELERS NATIONAL TELEVISION AD CAMPAIGN

25th ANNIVERSARY OF ‘LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY’ RECORDING CELEBRATED WITH YOUTUBE ROLLOUT  OF NEW DOCUMENTARY  EVA CASSIDY—ONE NIGHT THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING

Internationally renowned singer Eva Cassidy, who died from melanoma in 1996 at the age of 33, has been cultivating new fans in the U.S. as her signature rendition of Cyndi Lauper’s classic “Time After Time” serves as the soundtrack for Kay Jewelers’ national advertising campaign that has been running throughout the holiday season. On January 15, 2021, Blix Street Records will release ACOUSTIC featuring 20 of Eva Cassidy’s best loved acoustic tracks. “Time After Time” will lead off the new collection, which also includes favorites such as her acoustic interpretations of “Wade in the Water,” “Kathy’s Song,” “Autumn Leaves,” “American Tune” and “Songbird.” Additionally, the new year’s weekend marked the 25th Anniversary of Cassidy and her band performing at the Blues Alley nightclub in Washington, DC for what was to become the only solo Eva Cassidy album released during her lifetime. The audio and video recordings of the January 3, 1996 performance would become the basis for the original LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY album (first released locally in D.C. during the spring of 1996) and prove to be the foundation of Eva Cassidy’s unparalleled posthumous international success. Goldmine Magazine has written about the recording:  “Indeed, the entire performance is utterly spellbinding, an album that not only transports you back to the night, but also to a host of different eras as well. Magical.”   To commemorate the January 3 anniversary, a brand-new documentary entitled Eva Cassidy – ONE NIGHT THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING premiered on YouTube. The film, by British television director Attracta McLaughlin, contains footage from the historic concert, and, in addition, Eva’s band members--bassist Chris Biondo, pianist Lenny Williams, lead guitarist Keith Grimes and drummer Raice McLeod--revisit the Blues Alley venue to view video performances from the night with then and now perspectives. The documentary has already had more than 280,000 views a week after release.  The Eva Cassidy – ONE NIGHT THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING documentary is available for viewing here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEqzTlZdfSo&ab_channel=EvaCassidy The Kay Jewelers Someday campaign, as in “someday I’ll marry you,” was rolled out in October on various primetime cable shows on E!, AMC, Oxygen, TLC and others and then expanded to include :15 second and long form variations on the theme, all giving Cassidy’s singular voice exposure to an ever-growing audience. .  The initial :30 spot has racked up more than 250,000 views on YouTube while its longform :90 second version, launched for the 2020 holidays, can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74zE0cDARE0&ab_channel=KayJewelers Born in Washington, DC, Eva Cassidy recorded and performed in the area for several years until her untimely death at age 33. She left behind a small, but prodigious canon of recordings that has been meticulously curated and compiled by Blix Street Records, an independent label now based outside of Seattle, with the support of her parents, Barbara and Hugh Cassidy.  In April, 1998, Blix Street posthumously released SONGBIRD, a collection chosen primarily from two other Cassidy albums, LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY and EVA BY HEART. It featured Sting’s “Fields of Gold” and Eva’s unqualified signature performance of “Over the Rainbow” (taken from an album called THE OTHER SIDE recorded with Washington, DC’s “King of Go-Go” Chuck Brown). Later that same year, Blix Street also released the complete LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY and EVA BY HEART, the first national exposure for both albums, followed in May, 2000 by TIME AFTER TIME, a new compilation selected from her then-unreleased material.  2001 would see Eva Cassidy become an “overnight sensation” as SONGBIRD reached #1 on the British charts, setting off a feeding frenzy among the media on both sides of the Atlantic. In the U.S., everyone from People Magazine to ABC News Nightline to The Today Show to VH-1 News had weighed in on the Eva Cassidy phenomenon.  SONGBIRD has been certified Platinum in the U.S. for sales of more than 1,000,000 units and is 6x Platinum in England.    Cassidy’s wide-ranging, but unerringly tasteful, sense of material kept her from a recording contract during her lifetime, but that taste continues to propel interest in her recorded work all these years later. Blix Street has released more than a dozen Eva Cassidy collections since 1998. * * * * * This is Eva Cassidy singing “Time After Time” at the Blues Alley nightclub on January 3, 1996: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWvPOJOYqGA&ab_channel=EvaCassidy

EVA CASSIDY ACOUSTIC Track List 1. Time After Time 2. Wayfaring Stranger 3. Early Morning Rain 4. At Last 5. Wade In The Water 6. Dark Eyed Molly 7. Songbird 8. Bold Young Farmer 9. Tennessee Waltz 10. It Doesn't Matter Anymore 11. People Get Ready 12. The Water Is Wide 13. Kathy's Song 14. True Colors 15. You Take My Breath Away 16. American Tune 17. I Wandered By A Brookside 18. Autumn Leaves 19. Who Knows Where The Time Goes 20. Danny Boy

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Blix Street Records to celebrate 20th anniversary of Eva Cassidy's 'Songbird' with 'Songbird20'

For fans of the late Eva Cassidy, here is some very big news. And for those not familiar with Cassidy, her voice was beautiful and able to deliver deeply impactful versions of reworked classics...

BLIX STREET RECORDS CELEBRATES 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF

EVA CASSIDY'S MONUMENTAL 'SONGBIRD' ALBUM WITH

RELEASE OF 'SONGBIRD20'

Re-Mastered Original CD Plus 4 Bonus Tracks Will Arrive in Stores On March 2 in UK and Australia, March 9 in U.S. 

 and March 30 in Canada

Eva Cassidy's SONGBIRD album was initially released by independent label Blix Street Records in April, 1998.  The posthumous release, an anthology of recordings by the Washington, DC-based singer who had died in November of 1996, is comprised of four tracks from her first solo album, LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY (taken from her January 3, 1996 performance with her band at the Georgetown jazz club and locally released a few months before she died); five tracks from EVA BY HEART, the studio album she was recording at the time of her passing, posthumously released locally a year after she died; and one track (Over The Rainbow) from THE OTHER SIDE, a 1992 collection of jazz and blues duets with Washington's Chuck Brown.

According to Blix Street's founder/president Bill Straw, the plan was to introduce the music of the then recently deceased/now legendary singer to the world via an album that would live on with early believers until the inevitable tipping point around the world. The title-SONGBIRD-was taken from Eva's included cover of the Christine McVie classic that has closed many a Fleetwood Mac concert. LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY and EVA BY HEART were both later released by Blix Street in the summer of 1998, the first national and international exposure for both works.

  

SONGBIRD20, set for release by Blix Street in the UK and Australia on March 2, the U.S. on March 9 and Canada on March 30, celebrates the 20th anniversary of the original SONGBIRD, an album 'heard round the world'...more than five million copies sold. SONGBIRD20 contains the re-mastered original ten tracks (featuring Cassidy's masterful interpretations of Fields of Gold, Autumn Leaves, Songbirdand Over the Rainbow) plus four acoustic bonus tracks (Songbird, Wade in the Water, People Get Ready and Autumn Leaves) that surfaced long after the release of SONGBIRD. They were first heard on the 2011 SIMPLY EVA album.

SONGBIRD originally arrived with immediate impact around the world. It began with Fields of Gold and ended with Over the Rainbow, tracks that people only had to hear once. In between were eight other classic performances that also showcased Eva Cassidy's extraordinarily versatile voice and exquisite taste: in choice of songs; impeccable arrangements and her incredible ability to re-imagine a familiar song and make it her personal property. People Magazine wrote at the time: "Whether in jazz, folk, or inspirational music, Cassidy's potential was huge, and this album stands as a testament to popular music's loss."

Two years later, as 2000 drew to a close, National Public Radio featured Eva Cassidy on its "Morning Edition" news program and, almost simultaneously over in England, a grainy video of Cassidy performing "Over the Rainbow" from the Blues Alley concert aired on the British television program Top of the Pops2 on BBC2, and it was re-broadcast in January, 2001 following a wave of phone calls, emails and letters from viewers. The rebroadcast catapulted the SONGBIRD album to the top of the UK and Irish album charts on March 18, 2001, igniting a media storm in the U.S. where outlets from The Today Show to ABC World News Tonight to CNNweighed in on the phenomenon that was Eva Cassidy. ABC News Nightline ran a full half hour piece that has been rebroadcast numerous times in the ensuing years, making it one of, if not the most popular program in the history of Nightline. The piece was anchored by ABC's on-air correspondent Dave Marash who had heard Eva music in Washington and would then listen to it at night while covering the war in Bosnia and other faraway places.

By November of 2001, the fifth anniversary of her passing, SONGBIRD had been certified: Triple Platinum in England for sales of more than 900,000; and Gold in the US for sales of more than 500,000, eventually hitting #1 on BillboardMagazine's Internet Album Chart and topping the publication's Pop Catalog Chart for 32 weeks.

The small catalogue of material she left behind has been meticulously curated and released via 11 different albums. Subsequent Eva Cassidy releases include TIME AFTER TIME (2000), two additional U.K. chart toppers, IMAGINE (2002) and AMERICAN TUNE (2003)--the former climbed to #1 on Billboard's Independent Album Chart, the latter to No. 5), the 2004 compilation WONDERFUL WORLD, followed by SOMEWHERE in 2008 and 2011's SIMPLY EVA, an album of alternative Eva-only acoustic guitar and vocal performances. THE BEST OF EVA CASSIDY was released in 2012.

In 2015, Blix Street released NIGHTBIRD, the complete 31-song recording of Eva Cassidy's landmark Blues Alley concert. The two-CD set, containing 12 previously unreleased tracks, was remixed and remastered from the original tapes and also released in a double vinyl album version.

To date, Eva Cassidy has sold more 10 million records around the world-with half attributed to SONGBIRD. Six times Platinum in England, SONGBIRD passed the one million sales mark in the U.S. and was certified Platinum on November 14, 2008. Cassidy recently became one of only 11 female artists to ever achieve 10 or more UK Gold albums.

In recent years, Eva Cassidy has become the standard for a younger generation of female singers. Her influence is documented in Eva Cassidy: Timeless Voice, a 2013 television program. Adele has been quoted as saying: "So I used to dress up like a Slipknot fan, and then after school I'd run home and listen to Eva Cassidy."

Every year brings countless new uses of her music in films, television and

beyond--from USA Ladies Figure Skating Champion Michelle Kwan skating to Eva's Fields of Gold during the closing ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City to the inclusion of her Songbird performance in the film Love Actually (2003) to a 2007 BBC poll ranking Eva Cassidy 21st on a list of "100 Voices of the 20th Century" to the 67th Annual Emmy Awards using her signature version of Over the Rainbow to underscore the 2015 award show's In Memoriamtribute honoring the passing of major television industry figures during the prior year to the continuing use of her arrangements and recordings on talent shows such as The XFactor, The Voice, American Idol, America's Got Talent and Dancing With The Stars.

Eva Cassidy performing live.

Born in Washington, DC, Cassidy grew up around music in Oxon Hill, Maryland (and in Bowie, Maryland after the age of nine). Her father, a special needs teacher, played bass and cello while her brother Dan played violin. She was encouraged to sing at home with her siblings from an early age, and by high school, she was in several bands.

Her catalogue of recordings began when she wandered into producer Chris Biondo's studio in Kensington, Maryland to sing on a band's demo to make extra money. Biondo, 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.   In 1992, THE OTHER SIDE, a collection of Brown and Cassidy duets (plus her solo version of Over the Rainbow) was released nationally by Liaison Records.  

Cassidy worked in a plant nursery by day to fulfill her desire to be close to nature and played in local clubs around her native Washington, DC by night, developing a loyal following for her intensely personal, highly eclectic musical style. Unable to secure a record deal she was happy with, Cassidy cashed in a small pension from her job to pay for the recording of her first album, LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY, in 1996. She was backed by her band -- producer Chris Biondo on bass, pianist Lenny Williams, lead guitarist Keith Grimes and drummer Raice McLeod. Nobody could have imagined that the audio and video recordings captured that night would prove to be the foundation of Eva Cassidy's unparalleled posthumous international success. Cassidy and Biondo were also at work on a studio album which would become EVA BY HEART. It was completed by Biondo and released locally by Liaison Records almost a year after Eva's death.

After she was diagnosed with melanoma at the age of 33, Blix Street recording artist Grace Griffith sent Eva's music to her label's president Bill Straw. Straw heard the original LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY album in late September of 1996, shortly before Eva died. "By the time I finished listening to the whole album, I knew I had heard one of the best singers ever," he recalls. "I knew she was going to be famous, but also knew she would not live to enjoy it. I drove around listening to her cassette in my car for months before contacting her parents about marketing their daughter's music."

Eva Cassidy's voice caused a collective spontaneous reaction around the world that she did not live to witness   SONGBIRD20 is a celebration of the anniversary of the release of the album that first made the world aware of one of the finest singers of her generation.

In these intervening 20 years since the release of SONGBIRD, Eva Cassidy's music has proven timeless and universal. Crossing all boundaries-musical, cultural, geographical-her voice continues to find new listeners every day. "She sang for the pure joy of singing," her mother, Barbara Cassidy, has said, "however, the spirit would move her."

SONGBIRD20-Special Anniversary Edition Track List: 1.   Fields of Gold 2.   Wade In The Water 3.   Autumn Leaves 4.   Wayfaring Stranger 5.   Songbird 6.   Time Is A Healer 7.   I Know You By Heart 8.   People Get Ready 9.   Oh, Had I A Golden Thread 10. Over The Rainbow Bonus Tracks: 11. Songbird (acoustic) 12. Wade In the Water (acoustic) 13. People Get Ready (acoustic) 14. Autumn Leaves (acoustic)

Pre-order at:  www.amazon.comVisit:     www.blixstreet.com               www.evacassidy.com

Eva Cassidy returns to iTunes Top 10 following last night's Emmy Broadcast

This is a welcome media release and truly celebrates the best thing about last night's Emmy Awards broadcast.  Eva Cassidy returns to iTUNES Top 10 following Emmy Awards Broadcast   Her Classic Rendition of "Over the Rainbow" was heard by millions during the "In Memoriam" Tribute at last night's telecast

Eva Cassidy, the versatile, much-missed vocalist praised for her emotional range and interpretive skills, returns to the Top 10 of the iTunes Singer Songwriter Chart following last night broadcast of the 67th Annual Emmy Awards. Cassidy, who earned an international audience and critical acclaim following her death in 1996 at the age of 33, was heard singing her signature version of "Over the Rainbow" as accompaniment to the awards show's In Memoriam tribute that honored the passing of major figures in the television industry during the past year. Cassidy's "Over the Rainbow" is the centerpiece of Seattle-based independent Blix Street Records' 1998 release SONGBIRD, which introduced Cassidy to the world. It was in 2001 that music enthusiasts sat up and took notice of Cassidy's compelling way with a song; that was the year that SONGBIRD hit the top of the British album charts and captivated audiences the world over. SONGBIRD has now been certified Platinum in the U.S., and the Eva Cassidy catalog of 10 albums from Blix Street have sold over 10 million copies worldwide.  The song is also available on the compilation THE BEST OF EVA CASSIDY, released in 2012.   A new Eva Cassidy CD entitled NIGHTBIRD, comprised of the complete Blues Alley concert performances from January, 1996, will be released by Blix Street in time for this year's holiday season. LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY, containing highlights from that nightclub engagement at the legendary Washington, DC venue, was the final album by Cassidy completed before her death. Born in Washington, DC, Eva Cassidy recorded and performed in the area for several years until her untimely death from melanoma in 1996. She left behind a small, but impeccable body of recordings that have been meticulously curated and compiled by Blix Street Records with the support of her parents, Barbara and Hugh Cassidy.   The Wall Street Journal praised her "perfect pitch, impeccable timing and vulnerability" and USA Today cited her "emotional ability to reach the depths of any song." These were in evidence during the emotional segment at last night's Emmy broadcast seen around the world. Visit:  www.blixstreet.com           www.evacassidy.com

Blix Street Records to release "Best of Eva Cassidy" on November 13

One of the most beloved vocalists of the modern music, Eva Cassidy's legacy lives on. A new 'Best Of' collection should help satisfy fans of the late singer, as well as introduce her to new audiences...

On November 13, 2012, independent Blix Street Records will release The Best of Eva Cassidy, a compilation of the music of the versatile, much-missed vocalist praised for her emotional range and interpretive skills. Proof of both qualities abounds on the collection, which gathers 19 performances from the Washington, D.C.-based Eva Cassidy's previous albums and adds a previously unissued version of her popular "You Take My Breath Away." The Best of Eva Cassidy arrives on the eve of what would have been the singer's 50th birthday (February 2, 1963).

Cassidy's reputation has only grown since her untimely 1996 death from melanoma at the age of 33, earning her an international audience (more than 10 million CDs sold worldwide) and critical acclaim, with the Wall Street Journal praising her "perfect pitch, impeccable timing and vulnerability" and USA Today citing her "emotional ability to reach the depths of any song." Cassidy fans and newcomers alike will find much to savor in The Best of Eva Cassidy, whose program reprises the singer's greatest moments-among them her nonpareil reading of Sting's "Fields of Gold," John Lennon's "Imagine," Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready" and Christine McVie's "Songbird," the title song of her first and still biggest-selling posthumous release. She likewise applies her unique, song-sympathetic voicing to folk (the fragile "Danny Boy" and the swinging "Wade in the Water"), standards ("Autumn Leaves," "Over the Rainbow") and the work of such contemporary singer-writers as Paul Simon ("Kathy's Song"), Bill Withers ("Ain't No Sunshine") and Cyndi Lauper ("Time After Time").

Of special note is the album's 'new' track, a version of Claire Hamill's inspirational tune that became one of Cassidy's signature songs.  While the 1993 'demo' version of the song concluded Eva's American Tune Album, this previously unheard recording was one of several works-in-progress tracks at the time of her passing in 1996.  This more musically evolved vocal performance simply reaches a new level. With the aid of new digital technology, Eva's former bandmates Chris Biondo and Lenny Williams recently enhanced Eva's original guitar/vocal studio recording.  After maximizing the sound quality of Eva's vocal tour de force, they augmented the production with piano, double bass and a string quartet, creating the definitive version of what is destined to become one of Eva's best-loved performances. "Hearing Eva perform my song was probably the most important moment of my career," Hamill says of Cassidy's earlier treatment of "You Take My Breath Away."   "I felt validated as a songwriter, a truly indescribable feeling. When I heard how a new version was to feature as the lead track on her new Best of Eva Cassidy album, I was literally over the moon. Eva will always mean the world to me.  Her beautiful voice will stay with me forever." "Any new track on an Eva Cassidy best-of album had the tall order of being competitive with the other 19 classic Eva tracks, which have together raised the bar for singers everywhere," explains Blix Street Records president Bill Straw. "Essentially, Eva had to top or at least equal her own best work. I believe she did it. Otherwise, we would not have put it on the album. Some of our people in England are saying this 'new' version of 'You Take My Breath Away' is the best 'sounding' Eva Cassidy recording ever, high praise indeed at this point. It is enough to say that Eva's 'newest' released performance is worthy for inclusion among her best. Eva fans will ultimately decide for themselves where it ranks for them among her many classics."   Initially shy and retiring, Eva Cassidy first appeared publicly in the Washington, DC-Maryland area, bowling over club patrons with her intensely personal, highly eclectic musical style. Following Cassidy's two locally issued albums, in 1998 independent Blix Street label took on the singer's catalog, initially releasing SONGBIRD (a compilation of tracks from the two albums, plus "Over the Rainbow" from the 1992 The Other Side duet album with Chuck Brown).  Blix Street subsequently reissued the earlier Live At Blues Alley and Eva By Heart albums.  But it was in 2001 that music enthusiasts sat up and took notice of Cassidy's compelling way with a song; that was the year that the Songbird compilation hit the top of the British album charts and captivated audiences the world over.  Songbird has now been certified Platinum in the U.S. Subsequent releases include Time After Time, two additional U.K. chart toppers, Imagine and American Tune (the former climbed to No. 1 on Billboard's Independent Albums survey, the latter to No. 5), the 2004 compilation Wonderful World followed by Somewhere in 2008 and 2011's Simply Eva (an album of alternative Eva-only guitar and vocal performances). The full track listing for THE BEST OF EVA CASSIDY: 1.  You Take My Breath Away   (new version)       2.  Kathy's Song 3.  Songbird 4.  What A Wonderful World 5.  Wade In The Water 6.  Ain't No Sunshine 7.  Time After Time 8.  Autumn Leaves 9.  I Can Only Be Me 10. Fields Of Gold 11. It Doesn't Matter Anymore 12. Imagine 13. Over The Rainbow 14. True Colors 15. Danny Boy 16. People Get Ready 17. Anniversary Song 18. Early Morning Rain 19. I Know You By Heart 20. Tall Trees In Georgia Visit: www.blixstreet.com