EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS, ARTICLES AND FEATURES



Albums

SONG-BY-SONG ARTICLES

I hope Eva's fans will enjoy reading these in-depth accounts of how the songs on her albums came to be recorded.  Eventually I hope to write short articles about ALL the songs on Eva's albums.  So far I have completed the following:



EXCLUSIVE ARTICLES AND INTERVIEWS

Blues Alley SignLIVE AT BLUES ALLEY -- YOU ARE THERE:  Exclusive to this website, this is Part One in a series of articles I am writing about EVA CASSIDY: LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY.  This first article is entitled "You Are There."  Let me know how you like it.  Article #2 will be "published" eventually.  It will have a different, more straightforward approach, with information about how the songs were chosen and rehearsed, and what happened to the "lost" first night of recording at Blues Alley.  



Guitar photoMIKE DOVE INTERVIEW: What was it like to attend a performance by the Eva Cassidy Band?  Mike Dove was there from its first engagement at Fatty's to the final Tribute Concert at the Bayou.  I think you will enjoy reading this interview with Mike, and learning more about Eva's guitar technique, the kinds of places where the band performed, and how Eva decided to sing "Fields of Gold" for her Blues Alley album.  (WOW -- judging from the mail I received in the 12 hours after I posted that interview, it's a big hit.)  "The Trade Winds was their first regular gig, that was a Polynesian restaurant over by Congressional Plaza in Rockville. It's a Brazilian barbecue place now. It was a really big place, a large banquet room, the band played for food. I think the first week there were four of us there, and after that it was mostly just me, for the next eight weeks. There might have been another person off and on, but for the most part it was just me."



Photo of Al DaleAL DALE INTERVIEW: An exclusive interview with Eva's manager, Al Dale. From 1988 to 1996, Al Dale was Eva Cassidy's manager, booking her into clubs, providing support and encouragement, and trying to get her a record contract.  When those efforts failed, he persuaded Eva to make a live album which they entitled LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY.   'I think about all the people that I brought in from the record labels, and everywhere else, and how they couldn't see it, they couldn't hear it, or they couldn't get beyond the little thing that says "She's got to be pop, or blues," I think about how they missed the boat. I think those people look back on it now and say "Man, that was a big mistake." I haven't really had any dialogue with them about it, but they can't help but think, "Man, did I blow this one." '



EVA BY HEART album coverCHRIS BIONDO INTERVIEW: Eva's producer and bassist, Chris Biondo, discusses The Making of the Album EVA BY HEART in the very first of the interviews written especially for this website in August 1999, long before Eva's music became well-known around the world.

BIONDO:  "I think she understood that being popular and famous was not all it's cracked up to be. That wasn't what drove her to make music. There are singers who are successful now, popular now, who won't be remembered like Eva. They don't have the emotional impact of Eva. There might only be 30,000 people in the whole world that have even heard of her, compared to some other singers you hear a lot about, but to those thirty thousand people, Eva really means something to them, there's a real emotional connection."



Photo of Keith GrimesKEITH GRIMES INTERVIEW: Also exclusive to this website, a fascinating interview with Keith Grimes, the lead guitarist for THE EVA CASSIDY BAND.  In this interview, Keith discusses what it was like working with Eva, and the history of the Eva Cassidy Band.  My favorite quote:  "Eva carried more of the band's equipment than any female singer I have ever worked with."



Method Actor AlbumDAVID CHRISTOPHER INTERVIEW: From February, 2000, an interview with David Christopher, who worked with Eva in the late 1980s to record the first album to feature her on lead vocals, METHOD ACTOR.  "Eva recorded a lot of different music because she loved it.  When she had to sing in front of an audience, though, she really hated it.  But if you asked her to be a background singer for a performance she changed, she'd do the dance steps with the other singers, she'd relax and have fun.  She didn't like the pressure of being in front."



Time After Time coverEILEEN WHITE INTERVIEW: Learn more about the photos and artwork on the TIME AFTER TIME album in this interview with graphic designer Eileen White. In this interview, she discusses how she approached the project and how she turned detective from basement to attic to track down some of the photos and artwork. Get out your CD and take a look while you read! "...at the bottom of one of the drawers were a couple of rolls of undeveloped film....I got the film developed, and on one of the rolls were some pictures of Eva...."



CD single coverSTEVEN DIGMAN ARTICLE: The CD single of "Anniversary Song" and "Say Goodbye" was released in the United Kingdom on September 10, 2001.   Click here to read a special article about the songs and their author, Steven Digman.  "That song, you can 100% thank Chris [Biondo] for. He's the one who insisted, I mean absolutely insisted that Eva sing 'Anniversary Song'.... I had already recorded it with another vocalist and was happy with it, and I knew Eva was very busy. But Chris kept on insisting, so one day (I think this is correct) Chris called me up and said 'Listen,' and I could hear Eva singing it. It was beautiful. Eva sounded good even over the phone. Of course it blew me away."



Grace Griffith GRACE GRIFFITH ARTICLE: Here is something special.  Steven Digman sent me an article he wrote for the Pickett News (a newspaper in Hagerstown, Maryland) and has allowed me to reprint it for the Eva Cassidy fans who visit this website.  It is an interview with singer Grace Griffith and how she came to know Eva, and ultimately how she introduced Eva's music to her own record label, Blix Street Records.  "All the colors of the rainbow, all life's palettes of beauty and sadness and sweet passion and eternity--it was all there in that voice that came from that heart and those hands."   For more about Grace Griffith, visit the Grace Griffith Page.


OTHER SPECIAL FEATURES