Live at Blues Alley | ||||
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Live album by Eva Cassidy | ||||
Released | May, 1996 | |||
Recorded | January 2–January 3, 1996 | |||
Genre | Blues, jazz, folk | |||
Length | 57:21 | |||
Label | Eva Music | |||
Producer |
Eva Cassidy, Chris Biondo |
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Eva Cassidy chronology | ||||
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Professional ratings | |
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Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
Allmusic |
Live at Blues Alley is an album by American singer Eva Cassidy, originally self-released in May 1996. This live album was recorded at the Blues Alley in January 1996. It was the final album by Cassidy before her death.
Live at Blues Alley serves as an example of Cassidy's eclectic tastes, covering classic and contemporary artists from Billie Holiday to Sting, including Al Green, Pete Seeger, Irving Berlin and more. Her cover of "Fields of Gold" was a popular radio song and record companies used it to promote her material; in 2001 Michelle Kwan skated to the music of Eva's version of this song. "What a Wonderful World", the last song she ever performed live, retains one of the rare introductions on the album that was not edited out in which she dedicates the song to her parents. "Golden Thread", by Pete Seeger, was declared by Eva as her favorite song in the album's liner notes and the song she felt had turned out the best on the album. It actually was not performed live at Blues Alley but was prerecorded months earlier.
The album inspired attention from audiences outside of her local following in Washington D.C. Before and during the album's recording, Cassidy suffered many physical health problems, whose causes, at the time, were unknown. A month after the album was released, she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Unfortunately, she died three months later without experiencing the peak of her musical career, which would come after her death. "Her posthumous success," writes William Cooper, "has been astonishing, with worldwide critical acclaim and extensive exposure on British television that helped her album Songbird climb to number one on the British album chart in March, 2001."