Eva Cassidy Lyrics And Tabs - Site Notes

Site notes: the why and how

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Torbjörn, Mona & Eva

In the fall of 2000 my wife Mona read a piece about an unknown American singer who died in 1996. We have always been interested in female vocalists, and over the years we have listened to a great variety of them, from Bessie Smith through Billie Holiday to Phoebe Snow, Erika Badu and Alicia Keys. We forgot all about that article, but sometime later Mona remembered and reminded me of it. She had a hunch…

We looked up 'Eva Cassidy' at Amazon.co.uk and listened to a sound clip. After a couple of seconds we looked at each other and said "Wow! What is this ?" We immediately ordered all her albums. Never had we heard a better singer! She passed right through all our critical filters, and ever since she has held a large place in our hearts. As soon as the CDs had arrived, we felt we just had to know every word she sang. Not just the sense, but literally every 'oh' and 'yeah'. We bought headphones, and the CD player went on play-rewind-play-rewind, while we scribbled down the lyrics as fast as we could. Now and then we found one of the songs on the Internet, but it was never exactly as Eva sang it

After we had 'finished' the transcriptions, we realized they contained far too many incorrect and dubious words and lines. To make any further headway we would have to get help from strangers. And so Mona contacted someone called Laura who was the webmaster of an Eva Cassidy web site:

I am from Sweden and of course I love Eva Cassidy. Who doesn't? To have the full experience of her poetry I have tried to find out the lyrics she sings.
Can anyone help me to fill in the correct words below?

And this is the reply she received:

Dear Mona,

Of course I'll help! It must be very difficult to learn the lyrics in a foreign language!
I've given the correct lyrics below in capital letters

Laura

Laura mailed us her corrected versions of the lyrics in Word format. She called them 'installments', and opening one of these files to compare its contents with our transcriptions was a solemn moment. But even Laura, who turned out to be Laura Bligh, Eva's cousin, occasionally had difficulties with a line. Thus we remember one particular line from Nightbird; Laura wrote:

Eileen and I are still debating over "Nightbird"! She thinks it might be "sells her pleasures."

Laura

Not only did we get help from Eileen White, the graphical designer who created the inlays for several of Eva's CDs, but through her we were also able to draw upon her partner Chris Biondo, the man behind Eva's career. On one occasion we went straight to the source. Laura contacted Steven Digman, the writer of such modern classics as Anniversary Song, Say Goodbye and Easy Street Dream. Here is what Steven wrote in answer:

I will have to go to the shop and listen to Say Goodbye before I can comment. I will email you later.
Thanks Laura for letting me help and please pass on my greeting to those in Sweden!

Best, Steven

Steven turned out to be not only a very kind and helpful man, but also a gifted poet. We mailed him specimens of contemporary Swedish poetry done into English by Robert Bly and others. Busy as he was with his violin store, Steven nonetheless helped us translate some of our favorite poems from Swedish. As time passed, still more of the work devolved on me, Torbjörn, since Mona has enough to do with her job as a teacher.

Our work on the transcriptions received its last bit of impetus when we got in touch with Henrik in Denmark. Not only does Henrik have a gift for language, he also has quite an instinct for tracking down obscure and scattered Eva Cassidy recordings, whose lyrics we have subsequently transcribed. To these must of course be added the more recent CDs Imagine and American Tune as well the early albums Method Actor and No Boundaries. My collaboration with Henrik has been both rewarding and instructive.

Torbjörn in Sweden