Eva Cassidy was the third of four children born to Hugh and Barbara Cassidy. From an early age, she displayed artistic and musical talent. When she was nine years old, her father taught her to play the guitar, and she began to play and sing at family gatherings.
While a student at Bowie High School, she did sing with a local band, called Stonehenge, and received considerable praise.
At the age of eighteen, Cassidy began her professional career, singing and playing guitar in a Washington, D.C., area band, called Easy Street. This band performed in a variety of styles, at weddings, corporate parties, and pubs.
During the summer of 1983, Cassidy sang and played guitar, six days per week, at Wild World, in Maryland. Her brother Dan was also a member of this working band.
Throughout the 1980s, Cassidy worked with a number of other bands, including the soul and Motown-oriented band The Honeybees, and the techno-pop band Characters Without Names, later called Method Actor.
During this period, Cassidy also worked as a propagator at a plant nursery and as a furniture painter in Annapolis, Maryland. In 1986, she met (bassist and recording engineer) Chris Biondo, who encouraged her and helped her find work as a backup singer for various acts. In 1990, Biondo and Cassidy hired the so-called "Eva Cassidy Band", composed of Chris Biondo, Lenny Williams, Keith Grimes and Raice McLeod, and she began to perform frequently in the Washington area.
In 1992, Biondo played a tape of Cassidy's voice for Chuck Brown. Best known as the "Godfather of Go-go", Brown is also a jazz and blues vocalist. This led to the first commercial recording of Cassidy, the duet album with Chuck Brown, The Other Side; which featured performances of classic songs such as "Fever", Billie Holiday's "God Bless the Child" and Cassidy's signature tune "Over the Rainbow". The album was released and distributed by Liaison Records, the label that also released Brown's Go-go albums. The duet CD attracted the attention of various record companies, but the offers all required Cassidy to pigeonhole herself within a single style (e.g., pop or jazz), something she adamantly refused to do.[citation needed]
In 1993 Eva Cassidy was first honored by the Washington area music community when she was awarded two Wammie awards for "Female Vocalist Roots/Traditional R&B" and "Vocalist Jazz/Traditional." The next year she was chosen to perform for the awards ceremony.
In January 1996, Cassidy recorded the album Live at Blues Alley, about which The Washington Post later commented that "she could sing anything and make it sound like the only music that mattered". [1] Cassidy was unhappy with her singing on the album, because she had a bad cold on the night of the recording; she began recording a studio album which was eventually released as Eva by Heart posthumously in 1997.
During a promotional event for the Live at Blues Alley CD in July 1996, Cassidy noticed an ache in her hips, which she attributed to stiffness from painting murals. The pain persisted, and, a few weeks later, Cassidy was diagnosed with melanoma. By the time of her diagnosis, the cancer had spread throughout her body. Cassidy's health rapidly deteriorated, and her final performance was in September 1996. At the performance, she had used a walker to reach the stage, sang "What a Wonderful World" in front of an audience of friends, and was subsequently admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital.[citation needed]
Eva Cassidy died on November 2, 1996, at the age of 33. She was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Washington Area Music Association.
Fields of Gold
Eva Cassidy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Among the fields of barley
You can tell the sun in his jealous sky
When we walked in fields of gold
So she took her love for to gaze awhile
Among the fields of barley
In his arms she fell as her hair came down
Among the fields of gold
Will you stay with me? Will you be my love
Among the fields of barley?
And you can tell the sun in his jealous sky
When we walked in fields of gold
I never made promises lightly
And there have been some that I've broken
But I swear in the days still left
We'll walk in fields of gold
We'll walk in fields of gold
I never made promises lightly
And there have been some that I've broken
But I swear in the days still left
We'll walk in fields of gold
We'll walk in fields of gold
Ooh
Many years have passed since those summer days
Among the fields of barley
See the children run as the sun goes down
As you lie in fields of gold
You'll remember me when the west wind moves
Among the fields of barley
You can tell the sun in his jealous sky
When we walked in fields of gold
When we walked in fields of gold
When we walked in fields of gold, ooh
The opening lines of Eva Cassidy's song Fields of Gold describe a memory that will last, even when time has passed. When the west wind moves, the singer will be remembered by the person they are addressing, and this memory will be associated with the fields of barley. It is through the setting of the fields of barley that their memory will be anchored. The jealousy of the sun is anthropomorphized, and suggests that the moment in the fields of gold was so beautiful that even the celestial bodies were envious.
The second verse of the song offers more detail about the moment in the fields of barley. The woman in the song is taking time to gaze at the fields of barley, and is joined by a lover. They embrace among the fields of gold, again describing sunlight in anthropomorphic terms as being jealous. The imagined conversation between the two lovers suggests a hope for a future together.
The final verse reflects back on the memory, years later. The children running as the sun goes down and the fields of barley suggest a continuity of life and love in the natural world. Even in the future, the west wind will blow and the sun will still be jealous, but the memory will still be cherished.
Line by Line Meaning
You'll remember me when the west wind moves
You'll think of me when the westerly breeze blows
Among the fields of barley
In the midst of the barley fields
You can tell the sun in his jealous sky
You can see the sun, enviously glaring down on us
When we walked in fields of gold
When we strolled together amidst the golden fields
So she took her love for to gaze awhile
She went to admire her love for some time
Among the fields of barley
In the midst of the barley fields
In his arms she fell as her hair came down
She fell into his arms as her hair tumbled down
Among the fields of gold
In the midst of the golden fields
Will you stay with me? Will you be my love
Will you remain by my side? Will you be my beloved?
Among the fields of barley?
In the midst of the barley fields?
And you can tell the sun in his jealous sky
And you can see the sun, enviously glaring down on us
When we walked in fields of gold
When we strolled together amidst the golden fields
I never made promises lightly
I never made promises carelessly
And there have been some that I've broken
And there were some promises that I've failed to keep
But I swear in the days still left
But I pledge to you, in the days to come
We'll walk in fields of gold
We'll take leisurely strolls in the golden fields
We'll walk in fields of gold
We'll take leisurely strolls in the golden fields
Ooh
A vocalization expressing emotion
Many years have passed since those summer days
A great deal of time has gone by since those summer days
Among the fields of barley
In the midst of the barley fields
See the children run as the sun goes down
Observe as the children run when the sun sets
As you lie in fields of gold
As you rest in the golden fields
You'll remember me when the west wind moves
You'll think of me when the westerly breeze blows
Among the fields of barley
In the midst of the barley fields
You can tell the sun in his jealous sky
You can see the sun, enviously glaring down on us
When we walked in fields of gold
When we strolled together amidst the golden fields
When we walked in fields of gold
When we strolled together amidst the golden fields
Ooh
A vocalization expressing emotion
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Gordon Sumner
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind