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.
Autumn Leaves
Eva Cassidy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The falling leaves of red and gold
I see your lips the summer kisses
The sunburned hands I used to hold
Since you went away the days grow long
And soon I'll hear old winter's song
But I miss you most of all my darling
When autumn leaves start to fall
Since you went away the days grow long
And soon I'll hear old winter's song
But I miss you most of all my darling
When autumn leaves start to fall
I miss you most of all my darling
When autumn leaves start to fall
The lyrics of Eva Cassidy's song 'Autumn Leaves' speaks of bittersweet memories of a past love that still lingers, especially during the autumn season when leaves start to fall. The opening lines set the scene with falling leaves drifting by the singer's window, and the colors of autumn - red and gold. The next verse reveals that the singer is thinking of their past love when they see the sunburned hands they used to hold and remember the summer kisses they shared. The refrain repeats the lines 'But I miss you most of all my darling when autumn leaves start to fall,' and it is here where the yearning for the past love becomes more intense. The last verse acknowledges the reality that the person has gone away and left the singer to face the long days, with the impending winter heralded by the old winter's song.
The song has a melancholic tone, which perfectly suits the theme of nostalgia and longing. Eva Cassidy's beautiful rendition of the song adds a haunting quality that resonates with listeners. The slow and steady tempo, orchestral arrangements, and the beautiful evocative lyrics combine to create an emotional connection that is hard to ignore. The song speaks to anyone who has loved and lost, and the memories that can be triggered by a smell or a sound, or in this case, the autumn season.
Line by Line Meaning
The falling leaves drift by my window
I watch the leaves fall outside my window.
The falling leaves of red and gold
The leaves are various colors, including red and gold.
I see your lips the summer kisses
I remember the kisses we shared during the summer.
The sunburned hands I used to hold
I recall holding your sunburned hands.
Since you went away the days grow long
The days feel longer since you left.
And soon I'll hear old winter's song
Winter is approaching and I'm reminded of the change in season.
But I miss you most of all my darling
I miss you more than anything, my love.
When autumn leaves start to fall
Especially during the time when the leaves fall.
I miss you most of all my darling
Again, I miss you more than anything, my love.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: GIORGIO CANALI, FRANCESCO MAGNELLI, GIANNI MAROCCOLO, MASSIMO ZAMBONI, GIOVANNI LINDO FERRETTI
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@laurencecahill2329
You would think a song that has been covered a hundred times couldn’t be redefined— but she does it, utterly transforms it— this version is unique and unparalleled. ❤️
@user-bg2cs6rw8c
I wish there was a “Love a million times” button! God she was fabulous!
@johannesk1855
Eva is the first person I'm gonna look up in heaven just to thank her for this performance.
@pphantom538
It's been 1 year since my wife passed. Autumn was her favorite time for us to take walk through the forest just holding hands. Eva's beautiful and emotional interpretation of the lyrics brings comforting memories. May your both rest in peace.
@SigMaQuint
I can guess this means something very special to you, then.
@kittybitts567
God bless her soul. May she rest in peace. May perpetual light shine upon her. May her good and gentle soul through the Mercy of God rest in peace in Jesus' Holy Name, Amen. God bless and give you peace and solace. Amen.
@circlekings
❤
@mark9835
My Carol Ann went home in 2011. This song and Eva's enchanting voice bring tears of longing for my darling Carol.
@DavidMiller-yn1ig
BEAUTIFUL PRAYER
@pmbrig
Autumn Leaves is a jazz standard, covered by countless musicians and singers. So often it's done in an up-tempo swing style. Eva's rendition is soul-wrenching in its expression of love and loss. It immediately made me realize that no one has ever performed this the way it needed to be performed — this is what the song is really about, and it should always be done like this.
And it should be mentioned that the piano interlude is brilliant in the shape of its line, its reworking of the melody, its building to successive high points — a perfect complement to Eva's impeccable voice and arrangement.
This is truly a perfect performance. You could not change a note of it.