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.
Over the Rainbow
Eva Cassidy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
In the land that I've heard of once, once in a lullaby
Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true
Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Oh, way above the chimney tops, that's where you'll find me
Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Oh, way above the chimney tops, that's where you'll find me
Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true
If happy little bluebirds fly above the rainbow, oh
Oh, why can't I?
Eva Cassidy's rendition of "Over the Rainbow" is a powerful and emotional interpretation of the classic song. The lyrics describe a place "somewhere over the rainbow" where dreams really do come true and where troubles melt away. The singer yearns to go to this place where blue skies and happy dreams are waiting. The lyrics are a poignant and poetic representation of the human desire for hope and happiness, and the belief that these things can be found if one keeps dreaming and hoping.
The song's opening lyrics invite us to dream of a place that feels surreal and otherworldly. "Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high, in the land that I've heard of once, once in a lullaby", creates a sense of wonder and longing. This leads into the chorus, where the song becomes a call to action. "And the dreams that you dare to dream, really do come true." encourages people to dream and pursue their desires, no matter how far away they may seem. The concluding lines of the song, "If happy little bluebirds fly above the rainbow, oh, why can't I?", are heartbreaking in their yearning for a better life.
Line by Line Meaning
Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high
Somewhere, above the sky, across the rainbow, a magical place exists.
In the land that I've heard of once, once in a lullaby
The magical land that once existed in the singer's dream, now exists only in her imagination.
Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue
The singer's dreamland is a happy and peaceful place.
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true
The artist encourages the listeners to have courage to pursue their dreams, as they can come true in the magical land beyond the rainbow.
Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Oh, way above the chimney tops, that's where you'll find me
The artist dreams of escaping her troubles and worries and finding solace in the dreamland across the rainbow.
If happy little bluebirds fly above the rainbow, oh
Oh, why can't I?
The singer wishes to experience the happiness and freedom that she imagines the little bluebirds experience while flying over the magical land beyond the rainbow.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Yip Harburg, Harold Arlen
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@oakbank214
Who is still listening to this in 2024 ❤
@marydwyer3241
Lost my brother in 2019 to brain cancer. Been playing this song ever since😢.
@olwinmcdonald563
I am 💗
@joerowlinson4498
Me too at 81.Joyful
@MrVaug
@@marydwyer3241Lost my mother to cancer, we played this at her funeral 💔
@Christian-fk9xg
i am
@benefitpartnersdirect2065
I graduated from high school with Eva and had the privilege of seeing her live before she died. So, so good. An amazing talent and also a very humble and sweet lady. A tragic loss....
@laurieelliott1969
That is so cool, this will play when I go to heaven. Love rainbows and what God made. Gonna fly like a bluebird and troubles fly away.
@bryanrendleman2001
She was the most amazing singing talent to ever perform.
@AngelaDoyle-jh9gn
How privileged you are to have known such amazing talent.