Eva Cassidy When they make the Eva Cassidy movie --- and they will, they will --- the climax will almost surely come in September of 1996 at a Washington, DC club called the Bayou. The occasion: a benefit concert. The recipient: a 33-year-old singer almost unknown outside of Washington. The reason: Eva Cassidy has been diagnosed with cancer and told she has four months to live. In this scene, Eva enters on a walker, her hair lost to chemotherapy, her body obviously ravaged. Her friends perform in her honor. And then, with difficulty, she takes the stage and does one song, her signature number: I see trees that are green Red roses too I watch them bloom For me and you And I think to myself What a wonderful world. Not a dry eye in the house? No, there are two: Eva's. Her performance is flawless. And then she goes home to bed. Two months later, Eva Cassidy died. Eva Cassidy was an eccentric. Though blonde and attractive and a peerless interpreter of love songs, she wore baggy clothes and avoided romance. She'd swerve her truck so she didn't kill caterpillars, then turn in to the drive-through for junk food. She gobbled life, but after a first diagnosis of melanoma in 1993, she never kept her follow-up appointments. Her voice could sound as brassy as Joplin's; she was terminally insecure. She carried this divided self into her career --- or what passed for a career. She cherished the recording process, but was terrified of live performance. Although she could interpret any song, she was no writer. And this, most of all: She was a lifelong innocent who chose songs without regard to genre, and that total absence of a point-of-view was a deal breaker for record executives, who couldn't sign her because they didn't know how to classify her. Well, now we know how to classify her: cult. Someone sick or dying? Give an Eva Cassidy CD. Grieving? Try Eva. Weary? Feeling small? Tears in your eyes? Eva. Which is too bad. The Cassidy cult obscures the Cassidy recordings --- it's hard to listen to them without being crushingly aware that the singer's voice has been stilled. And the thing is, they're really good. Eva Cassidy, though scarcely trained, had a voice the greatest music student would envy. She was one with the song; she sang from the heart, without inflection. Bonnie Raitt comes to mind. Ella Fitzgerald. Aretha Franklin. Major talents, all. To hear her is to want to hear more. Under advisement, I suggest an anthology called Wonderful World. Like Eva, it's all over the map. The title song, of course. An ancient Paul Simon tune. A 1971 R&B hit. A Buddy Holly classic. And 7 more. Other fans suggest Songbird. Still others say her live CD --- released just months before she learned she was dying --- best shows her art. My sense is: If you love one, you'll want more. And, all too soon, you'll have them all. --- Jesse Kornbluth, for HeadButler.com To watch a video of Eva Cassidy singing “Fields of Gold,” click here. To watch a video of Eva Cassidy singing “What a Wonderful World,” click here. To buy “Wonderful World” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy “Songbird” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy “Time After Time” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy “Live at Blues Alley” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy “American Tune” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy “Eva by Heart” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy “Imagine” from Amazon.com, click here. To visit the best Eva Cassidy website, click here. Copyright 2007 by Head Butler Inc.