Track Listing

1. I Know You by Heart
2. Time Is a Healer
3. Wayfaring Stranger
4. Wade in the Water
5. Blues in the Night
6. Songbird
7. Need Your Love So Bad
8. Say Goodbye
9. Nightbird
10. Waly Waly
11. How Can I Keep from Singing?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2351 in Music
• Released on: 2006-08-01
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
This is Eva Cassidy's one and only solo studio album. Before her untimely death in 1996 she made a live album (Live At Blues Alley) and a duet album with Chuck Brown (The Other Side), and these, together with the posthumous compilation Songbird, represent the sum total of her output. Every album, every track is therefore doubly precious. For Eva Cassidy's voice is of the very rarest hue: the kind of voice that only comes along once in a generation, the kind of voice that grabs your heartstrings and just won't let go. Whether she is singing blues and jazz numbers, evergreen standards or folk ballads, her vocal expression, her range, note-perfect accuracy and sense of passionate immersion in the music are all palpable. If there's a problem it's that she is so supremely confident an interpreter of all these styles that the album lacks a single focus: Fleetwood Mac's touching ballad "Songbird" is bookended by the Arlen/Mercer standard "Blues In The Night" (a swinging blues) and "Need Your Love So Bad" (a duet with jazzman Chuck Brown). Sometimes Eva is Aretha Franklin, sometimes she's Sandy Denny. But it scarcely matters for anyone captivated by her voice. And anyone who listens to this album is certain to be captivated. --Mark Walker

Customer Reviews

Music's purest voice and greatest loss
Just through the simple act of intoducing Eva Cassidy to the nation, Terry Wogan deserves to be made the Head of State. Eva Cassidy is, quite simply, a revelation. Her voice is as pure as a mountain stream, her intonation on a par with any of the greats. She has the ability to move from soft ballads to gravelly blues without her voice ever seeming out of place, contrived or strained. This album contains gem after gem of such beauty that they make you marvel at her talent. For me, the highlight is the achingly beautiful 'I Know You By Heart', which demonstrates a perfect combination of lyric, melody, arrangement and delivery. This is a song with a lyric so deep that it contains within it a best selling novel waiting to be written. Her music is all the more poignant because of Eva's early death from cancer. The world has been robbed of a shining star and we can only wonder at what she could have gone on to achieve. Our only consolation is that while her music is appreciated , her memory and talent will never die.

A voice made in heaven
I purchased this CD on the strength of my first Eva Cassidy experience, "Songbird". This album just consolidates my opinion that she is one of the finest vocalist/performers of our time. It is very sad for us all that she is no longer with us. Give your ear's a treat and buy this album.

My Favourite Eva Album
I could listen to this album non-stop for days. It's wonderful. I love all the songs here, especially "I Know You By Heart", "Blues in the Night" and "Waly Waly".
Eva had a voice with such fantastic range. In "I Know You By Heart", her voice is so soft, absolutely beautiful on the lower, quieter notes. Then you listen to "Blues in the Night" and you're bowled over! Here was this gentle, soft singer then suddenly she's belting out this great song - very loud - and you can hardly believe it's the same woman.
Fantastic singer. Fantastic album.