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.
At Last
Eva Cassidy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
my lonely days are over, and life is like a song
At last,the skies above are blue
My heart was wrapped in clover
Every since the night I looked at you
And I found a dream that I could speak to
A dream to call my own
I found a thrill to press my cheek to
A thrill I'd never known
When you smiled, and then the spell was cast
And here we are in Heaven, I found my love at last
I found a dream that I could speak to,
A dream to call my own
I found a thrill to press my cheek to
A thrill like I had never known
You smiled, when you smiled at me that was how the spell was cast
And here we are in Heaven
I found my love at last
Eva Cassidy's song, "At Last," is a love song that is full of joy and elation. The song is about finding love and finally being able to be happy. The opening line, "At last, my love has come along," immediately sets the tone for the rest of the song. The lyrics tell the listener that the days of loneliness are over, and life is now like a song. The skies above are blue, and the heart is wrapped in clover. The singer shares her feelings of finding someone who completes her and makes her feel alive.
The song's chorus expresses the dream come true that she would cherish for eternity. The thrill of being with someone she loves makes her ecstatic, and she has found the thrill to press her cheek to at last. She sings about how when the person she loves smiled at her, she knew that she was under a love spell. The song's final verse mentions how they have found themselves in heaven, and she has found the love she has been longing for.
Overall, "At Last" is a romantic expression of true love that seems to speak to everyone's heart. It gives us hope that we, too, might find our "love at last."
Line by Line Meaning
At last, my love has come along
Finally, someone I love has entered my life
My lonely days are over, and life is like a song
I was feeling alone, but now that I have found love, life feels joyful like a song
At last, the skies above are blue
I was feeling down, but now that I have found love, the world looks brighter
My heart was wrapped in clover, every since the night I looked at you
Since I met you, I have been filled with happiness and good luck
I found a dream that I could speak to, a dream to call my own
I have discovered a dream that I can talk about and that means something special to me
I found a thrill to press my cheek to, a thrill I'd never known
I have found something exciting that I want to be close to that brings me joy
When you smiled, and then the spell was cast
Your smile had a powerful effect on me, and I knew I was under your spell
And here we are in Heaven, I found my love at last
Now that we are together, everything feels perfect like we are in paradise
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Peermusic Publishing
Written by: Harry Warren, Mack Gordon
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
magda machado-garshol
At last, my love has come along
My lonely days are over
And life is like a song
Ooh yeah, yeah
At last, the skies above are blue
My heart was wrapped up in clover
The night I looked at you
I found a dream, that I could speak to
A dream that I can call my own
I found a thrill to rest my cheek to
A thrill that I have never known
Ohh yeah yeah
You smile
You smile
Oh and then the spell was cast
And here we are in heaven
For you are mine
At last
Chloe Reep
"At Last"
At last my love has come along
My lonely days are over
And life is like a song
Ohh yeah
At last the skies above are blue
And my heart was wrapped in clover
The night I looked at you
I found a dream that I could speak to
A dream that I could call my own
I found a thrill to press my cheek to
A thrill that I have never known
Oh yeah yeah
You smiled ohh and then the spell was cast
And here we are in heaven
For you are mine at last
For you are mine at last
Narnce Lim
At last
My love has come along
My lonely days are over
And life is like a song
Oh yeah
At last
The skies above are blue
And my heart was wrapped in clover
The night I looked at you
I found a dream, that I could speak to
A dream that I can call my own
I found a thrill to press my cheek to
A thrill that I have never known
Oh yeah yeah
You smiled,
Oh and then the spell was cast
And here we are in heaven
For you are mine...
At Last
For you are mine...
At Last
Sam AM
At last my love has come along
My lonely days are over and life is like a song, oh yeah
At last the skies above are blue
My heart was wrapped up clover the night I looked at you
I found a dream that I could speak to
A dream that I can call my own
I found a thrill to press my cheek to
A thrill I've never known, oh yeah
You smiled, you smiled oh and then the spell was cast
And here we are in Heaven
For you are mine at last
Knut A Brandal
A voice from God himself.
And maybe that was why God took her home so early.
I get deeply emotional when I hear (all of) her wonderful performances.
Thank you, Eva.
Forgive me, please, that I just found out some years after you were gone.
From earth.
But you will live forever.
Forever.
Brock R
I saw someone say when you hear Eva, it passes the ear and goes straight to the soul. Perfect description for the most perfect voice i've ever heard.
PP W
Couldn’t have said if better. So true. Her singing just reverberates.
Sue Reaney
One of THE most amazing voices. Such a terrible loss that she was taken from this earth so soon. There have been few singers of this true calibre, although many have tried to convince us otherwise. Eva could take a song and make the words dance so perfectly, so beautifully, with such expertise. And she did it so effortlessly. She filled each note with true emotion and it showed. Rest in peace sweet angel x
cheongyei
@Neil Russell Yep. I'd love to blend Eva's voice with the orchestration of Etta's track.
Peter Williamson
So true Sue and she could play guitar so well.
Sue Reaney
@Neil Russell - Totally agree with you there, Neil. 😊 I adore Etta James version of this song too, but there is just something so very special in the way that Eva sang it. As there was with all she sang. She emoted each and every word so beautifully, you can't help but feel it. ❤️
Sue Reaney
@nitrox38 - Sadly, Eva left us in 1996, but her music will always live on, in our hearts. ❤️
Sue Reaney
@Tonetwisters - Thanks for sharing this. 😊 - Sue
Brian Skinner
Many is the time when her voice brings a rush of tears to my eyes. Joy and sadness in equal parts.
Deborrah Oliveri
True for me too Brian. She moves me.