So how old are you?

I am 29.

And what's your singing background?

Since I was a kid and then in chorus in high school or junior high.

Junior high, that's what it was.

And just little bands, you know, just nothing spectacular.

Something happened this week which astonished the feverishly competitive world of pop music.

An album by a complete unknown has been out selling top stars like Madonna, Craig David and Robbie Williams and doing it without any of the usual hype and publicity.

The artist is an American singer who died in obscurity nearly five years ago.

The artist is barely known, but midweek sales place Eva Cassidy at number seven in the official UK album chart.

Songbird, by Eva Cassidy, is set to top the British charts this weekend.

Which means it's going to out sell Eminem, it's going to outsell U2.

It's an incredible story.

She worked in a gardening centre and then she went to number one in England.

She was number one in England, she was number one in Australia, she was number one in Ireland, she was number one all over Europe.

The reason I think she embraces humanity and all things innocent.

To actually bring people to tears, there's people that can't do anywhere close to doing what Eva does.

She was a phenomenal interpreter Somewhere Over The Rainbow, the purity of that first note is absolutely stunning.

But she wasn't looking for fame.

She wasn't looking for the, she wanted to do her stuff on he Different, different and amazing She's a legend.

She's one of the greatest singer to ever walk the planet.

And they completely overlooked her.

And she never got a chance to see herself famous because of that.

But anyway, hope you're having a good time.

Somewhere over the rainbow way up high Theres a land that I heard of once, once in a lullaby Somewhere over the rainbow skies are blue And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true You can use this for a Latin number.

Did you hear the swans during the night?

No, I didn't hear them.

I heard them.

Eva went for a walk and there in the gutter of the street there was a little flower growing and Eva bent down and blessed that little flower because, you know, it had such a hard time struggling just to stay alive.

We knew there was something really special about her because she portraying her own soul in her music and in the artwork that she did.

She was an artist before she was a musician.

She was multi-talented and there's always something mysterious.

Then she began to put these bubbles into her paintings Ah, a picture right here, yeah, Eva painted that for me and it's got the bubble in it that appears in most of her paintings.

We don't really know what it is.

And people read all kinds of things into it.

And one day she laughingly said, well, I'll tell you on my deathbed.

Alright, yeah, just let me know if you come up with anything.

Alright, see ya.

I met Eva, I worked at a nursery, Behnke Nurseries, and she was already working there when I got hired, and that's where I met her.

She was on the same crew as me, as far as we did woody plants and,it was her and a bunch of guys.

All the same size and area.

That's Behnke mud.

Look, there's a snail trail in it.

Isn't that cool?

Hi, Brian.

My cherie amour, lovely as a summer day My cherie amour, pretty little one that I adore Youre the only one my heart beats for How I wish that you were mine Love you, Stevie.

Once I saw Eva performing, I was like,hey, mind if I come video you?

OK, back to me.

Look at the golden time in the clouds.

Isn't it pretty?

And this Greek end of the world Armageddon sculpture is pretty cool too.

Why don't we go up these steps and look at the sculpture thing.

Come this way.

She was okay with it, but we kind of had a deal where she said, I'd never want to see the footage.

So as long as I didn't share the footage to her, she was okay Isn't everything neat Look at the look at this view.

It's really, this is a great place.

Let's walk down this way.

Look at this.

I want to take my shoes off.

They had dancing boys strewing petals for me to walk on.

I thought that if she did make it to some level of success, that would be good footage for a documentary, which, here we are.

I met Eva because there was a group called Method Actor that was recording an album, and I hadn't met the vocalist.

And I remember talking to Dave Loram, who was the leader of the group, about who the vocalist was going and he said it was his friend from high school.

And I said, “is she any good?” And he kind of like rolled his eyes like, yeah, she's great.

She was actually afraid to come inside.

And then she came in and I thought, oh my god she can't be any good.

I mean, she has no esteem.

She's very, very quiet.

She doesn't have any outgoing qualities that a lot of singers should have.

[Eva Cassidy singing] I was just thinking, you know, the reality of how good she was took about maybe four or five notes and the sound of her voice.

It just was like nothing I'd ever heard before.

Where'd you grow up?

Oxon Hill and Bowie.

It was right after Eva was born.

She got her head between the bars of the crib, and when mom found her, she wasn't breathing.

And the ambulance came and took her away.

But Eva was fine.

But it always makes me wonder if that accident gave her extra gifts that all of us don't have So, tell me about your musical family.

My dad plays bass.

He was in a rock band when he was young, and he plays guitar too and he taught me to play guitar.

[cello playing] I got her started in music with guitar and it wasn't hard to round them up for a bout of singing.

Silent night, holy night All is calm, all is bright Round yon Virgin, mother and child Holy infant so tender and mild Sleep in heavenly peace Sleep in heavenly peace.

My dad was a huge mentor to her and to me, I mean, he educated us about music, but he took it a step higher.

Eva didn't have a chance to learn it.

No, I'm sorry.

That's a different tune.

No, that's not how it was.

That's not how it was earlier Okay, fine.

He's very much a perfectionist and expected us to be that way.

He would see the things right away that weren't right and he'd let you know about it, no matter what you were doing.

Her father was a perfectionist and not as showering of praise on her when she'd bring music over as she had hoped, but I think that the effect of that caused her to actually try harder.

And she would spend hours with the door shut and play and she'd go over and over until she got it right.

She would look after me because I was a younger brother.

Play games in the yard as a sort of mentor in some way that she'd been around longer than myself.

She was fairly animated.

She wasn't overly shy.

Her junior high school years were not so great.

Well, there were those cliques in those days, but she didn't feel like she fit into any group there.

I think it was the first time we saw Eva become more withdrawn.

She saw a lot of bullying going on, and of course she didn't approve of it at all.

I don't think she got bullied particularly but there may have been one or two incidences of unkindness to her.

But when Eva was in high school, I somehow talked her into singing in a heavy metal band called Nightwing.

Now that wasn't Eva's forte particularly.

But Eva and I decided we'd do one song, just the two of us, and they loved it.

[singing] Next to the school is the Bowie Public Library.

And I went and saw them, and she was, you know, you could tell right away, she was amazing.

And when I was a junior in high school, when the school year started, bands kind of formed at the beginning of school years, and they'd play through the year and then end at the end of the school year.

And we needed a singer, and I went to Dan, I said, do you think Eva would do it?

And he said, I don't think she'll do it, but you can ask her.

So I called, and I said, “Eva, would you like to sing?” And she said, sure.

That band was called Stonehenge, with some really good musicians in there.

I joined them as well and she still had the liberty to pick a few songs like Janis Joplin.

We did a Janis Joplin song, Turtle Blues, it was just amazing.

[Eva singing “Turtle Blues”] That was a good stretch for her because she was interacting with these wonderful musicians and we were all very good friends as well, so we would hang out.

You know, she was just a quiet person to herself in high school, I guess.

I'd come and pick her up here at this house.

I'd pick up Dan and Eva.

They would not say a word to me.

Total silence.

They weren't rude.

They just were very shy.

Thanks for the ride, is what they'd say, and on the way home, same thing.

But, of course, once you got to know her, So whenever my parents would leave town or after they moved out of the house, my house was kind of the party house.

I mean, not big parties, but just... and she would always be doodling.

If you knew Eva, you knew, you know, there's always this, this characterization of her being kind of holier than thou kind of.

But, I mean, she liked, she could drink, because she just wanted to socialize a little bit and she would want to dance, but she wouldn't do that sober.

Well, she associated herself with the character Charlie Brown in Peanuts.

And it's about a little boy who everyone makes fun of him and teases him, he can't do anything right, you know, and she thought of herself as that.

Really!

And even to the point she had beautiful long hair, but she said she thought the shape of her head even looked like Charlie Brown.

And that's the complex she had, such a low self-esteem.

And when she performed it was very, there was a lot of anxiety, you know, that was really, really hard for her.

Somebody had put into her head that she wasn't as good as she really was, and she carried that for a long time.

[Eva Cassidy singing] Ah-ha, the roving reporter.

Where's the small one?

Just seeing how things are going in the kitchen.

Margie, you're on camera.

Hi, Annette.

Hi, Eva.

Hi, Mama.

Sarah waved to me.

She did?

I said, Sarah, and she went... Oh, that's sweet, giving me a little shout out there There's Grandma lighting the Christmas tree.

If you want to learn about Eva, you can probably learn more about Eva just listening to her mother than anything Very briefly during the summer vacation she worked at the race track and there were also a lot of rats around and one of the guys had set a trap and caught a rat and Eva saw that rat running back and forth in the trap and so she felt so badly about this animal, and she just let it go, and she was fired after that.

And how did you, what did you do after high school?

You haven't secured yourself through singing.

What else do you do?

Well, right now I work at a greenhouse, Behnkes Nurseries.

It's my day job.

I don't think she had any ambitions to get a real job where you work your way up through the company.

The music was what she pursued.

The only thing is, she wasn't getting paid for that.

[Eva Cassidy singing] She did more Stonehenge work with Ned and stuff for a few years and then I would see her from time to time after that.

Whenever I needed somebody to sing for something, I would call her.

And then she met Chris when I brought her over there.

Through Chris Biondo, they formed a friendship, and then you could say the rest is history because he discovered how talented she was and I think boosted her confidence quite a bit [Eva singing Look into My Eyes] But the thing that got me even more impressed was after she did her lead vocal, she went back and she started building these background parts.

And she was able to put the harmonies together.

Nobody was telling her what to do, she just could feel the different changes and come up with these parts out of nowhere.

And I had never seen anybody do that before.

[Eva singing] I haven't been right, you know what I'm saying?

People have been trying to fuck with me, man, but they can't hurt me because of this bar shits in the way I get all the fucking money I need, because Brown and Brown and Cassidy, sue the fuck out of that drunk.

When I first met Eva, I was married, but my marriage wasn't going well and probably about a year after I met Eva, my wife and I split up and shortly after that, Eva and I and I started hanging out together.

And that was more of a platonic kind of relationship in the beginning, and then it kind of turned into a romantic relationship, and we eventually moved in together.

We used to go to St Thomas in the Caribbean.

We went there maybe four or five times, and I remember driving, we'd rent a car, and we'd be driving through the island, and she'd be singing, and those were very, very special times.

I felt like I had a front row seat to something very special.

She was a funny person, but you'd have to get her alone and you'd have to know her for a while.

I actually liked the fact that she could cuss like a sailor.

Like if we were driving along and somebody cut her off, she said some pretty rough stuff.

She had a truck and when it broke down on the side of the road, she got mad and walked and scrawled F.U.

onto the hood of the truck.

She was working with a group of guys unloading trucks full of plants and bags full of fertilizers and stuff that's not easy to do, physical stuff.

But I think that she felt that being around the crew all day, there were things that were said because it was mostly guys or all guys and she was the only girl.

It made her feel uncomfortable.

Women are losers.

You've never had the feeling towards just abusing a few males?

Never?

Ever?

Ever?

Come on.

I don't think either of us meant I don't abuse people.

I don't think either of us meant to drag it into a huge debate.

Lie to me.

Lie to me.

She started thinking, you know, I might want to do something else besides doing this.

and that's one of the reasons why she said, you know, I'd like to try doing background vocals try to make a tape and, you know, play it for people and see if they'll hire me.

Hey, Brian.

You bring the camera?

You don't like this though.

Because he arrives in his limo.

Wait till you get to your... Hey, Chuck.

Oh, man.

I'm sorry.

keeping everybody waiting.

Its okay.

How's everybody?

Royalty has arrived A late royalty arrival.

That's the kind of music that is How's everybody?

You heard of Chuck before this?

Oh, yeah.

You had been a fan already?

Yeah.

How did this whole thing start?

Um, Chris, he'd play my tape for people.

So, did you know that Chris was going to play this tape for Chuck?

Well, Chris told me after he did it or something like that like that and I just thought Oh my God.

I mean, did you ever feel intimidated by him?

Oh, Chuck is so friendly, you know.

At the certain point of getting Chuck Brown involved and him agreeing to do an album was amazing.

Because Chuck was very, very, very famous in Washington.

That was her first record.

Chuck had a great ear for talent and he just knew immediately that this was something special.

No, no, no, no, no, no, why would you think that.

And when she recorded, she had some very strong ideas about how she wanted these songs to be and the instruments and how the arrangements would go.

[ and background chatter] That's, I think, when she finally abandoned that Charlie Brown impression of herself and she realized maybe she could make her own arrangements.

This has been the biggest thrill in my life doing this with Chuck Thank you Chuck for letting me do it with you.

Its an honor for me.

The album was called The Other Side, and I remember when the album came out it was it was a challenge because it was not what Chuck was not what Chuck was known for and people wernt familiar with Eva yet I remember taking The Other Side album into radio and for most part getting a quick no.

But I think D.C.

had plenty of times to embrace Eva Cassidy on the level that she needed to be embraced on and didn't really come to the table like they should have Eva Cassidy Band, let's hear it for Eva Cassidy!

[drums & cheers & applause] Yeah, we have a band.

You have a band?

What kind?

It's R&B, but with a little bit of different things thrown in, so it's kind of eclectic.

And what's it called?

The Eva Cassidy Band.

I wish that it had a different name, but that's what it is.

Thats what it is.

Hey, how are you?

Give me a hug, babe.

Give me a hug.

It's been so long.

Hey, man.

I thought when we'd go out and play that she was going to start to be the most popular artist in Washington and people were going to beat a path to the door, but it never happened.

The saving grace was that there was a lovely little cadre of dedicated Eva fans.

The first time I believe that I ever saw Eva sing, I mean, you know, you just feel something.

It was enough that I went back and saw Eva pretty much every chance I could.

Sometimes two or three times a week.

Probably between one and two hundred times, I would think.

But, I mean, there were not a lot of people that would go to see her.

I mean, a lot of these shows, there might be two or three people there.

I mean, there were a few shows where I was the only person.

We played at a Chinese restauran and there was nobody there but him.

And so we played for Mike Dove for four hours.

You know, it keeps your ego in check.

I mean, she liked a lot of other musicians locally and she would sometimes invite them up to help.

And I just remember sitting ther looking around the room going, how are people missing this?

Like this, like people do not understand the greatness that they are missing.

And I saw the audience like ignoring her and talking and I was just like, shut the fuck up.

You know, what are you doing?

She was booked in the wrong place there.

She complained about, it was a loud bar and she went there and played, it's like, well, why did I even do that?

(Audience Clapping) Thank you.

Thank you.

Good night, everybody.

Those things got a hold of her, and I think that it was a real rough time for her.

She just gets sad.

Hey, where did everyone go?

They parted Oh, and you have that on still?

Yeah.

Emotionally, sometimes she would just be sad.

Me personally, I remember her being more irritated than sad.

I mean, I know that the sadness probably came to, and maybe what I thought was is that the world weighed very heavily on her because she was a finely tuned instrument.

And I think that that's why she went to nature, and I think that's why she went to music.

[waves crashing on the sand] We got a call that said that Mick Fleetwood was opening up a nightclub in Northern Virginia and he was looking for local bands.

And Mick was there and we played a couple of songs and after we finished the second song which was Stormy Monday, he walked up and hired us and just walked up and put out his hand and talked to Eva and said, “Yeah, yeah, I want you for my club.” I mean, she would walk into a room and this funny little, beautiful little creature, just no big hoo-ha really about anything, but she had a thing around her which was magical.

I'd like you to make welcome here tonight a very talented young lady, Eva Cassidy.

I have been around in a band with two phenomenal lady singers, Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks.

She had that.

We had dinner with Mick and his wife, they were very nice.

They come up in the dressing room and hed talk about how he might be able to help us.

There's no more iconic record label in jazz than Blue Note Records.

So he brought her to my office, but he didn't have anything to play, so she stood in the middle of the room and sang ‘Amazing Grace.

And it was just chilling.

[Eva singing Amazing Grace] I said, well, the voice is just spectacular, I mean, but we're a jazz label, had she been willing to make just a jazz record, we would have done it probably right away without question, but they were all over the place There was a gospel piece, there was a country song, there was a standard, ‘Over the Rainbow, etc.

We wanted to do this and do this and be this part of what we're seeing here.

You're all this, that, but we want you to concentrate just on this.

So, no thanks, no thanks.

And I said, well, you know, maybe you should be a little bit more compliant with some of their needs and stuff and I should have known better.

I remember she came back from New York, they want me to wear spandex pants and start going to dance classes and said it's not for me.

And I think that was one big problem with trying to get a record deal because I was the demo tapes had a lot of dance music R&B type and but that's not all that I like I like the old music like what we did, and I like folk music.

I like just everything, even a little bit of country here and there, you know?

I just like it all, so I'd like to be able to make all kinds of records of different music They rejected her because she was too versatile, and they didn't know who to sell it to.

They wanted to restrict her to one style because that's the way they marketed things.

Eva couldn't really be controlle by that corporate part, you know, if you're if you're not a woman who's complying with the corporate agenda there is 25 girls behind you who will and I think that's kind of and She didn't want to give up her integrity You know to get over or to make it big and I respected that about her very much She always chose what she wanted to sing and no matter what genre it was, if it suited her, then she sang it.

And being an artist, she reworked the songs she chose.

Chris was the engineer, of course, in producing, but she was the arranger.

She really stepped up and became the producer.

Introducing the incredible Lenny Williams.

Well, she would take something that an artist had constantly done a million ways, right?

Like ‘Autumn Leaves.

Autumn Leaves is always done like... [playing Autumn Leaves] Especially in the jazz world.

A little swing.

Sometimes people would do it as a ballad, but they'd still... Or as a waltz.

Everybody had done this kind of either langer version of that or a jazz version of that, and somehow she took that song and just, you know changed the whole way you hear it, turned it into almost a hymn.

[Eva singing ‘Autumn Leaves] She found a lot of maybe self-confidence or maybe even self-satisfaction in being able to hear that stuff in her head, manipulate it onto a guitar, and then kill everybody with this beautiful interpretation of the song that she loved.

You know, it killed her as much as it was killing all of us.

Like it was, I think that's what she wanted.

[Eva singing ‘Autumn Leaves] So we're here, this is where Jim and I were married 31 years ago and Eva being my friend, of course, I asked her to sing at the wedding and she very graciously said sure.

[Eva singing ‘Bridge Over Troubled Waters] Hi everybody, this is Eva.

As you know, outstanding, beautiful, beautiful voice and we love it.

I talked to her about getting married, and I don't think that she was the Marrying type.

I think the longer we were together, I think she thought that that was the more inevitable thing that might happen, and I think that was eventually the reason why we split up.

I think that that was not for her.

Because she was so independent, I don't think she wanted somebody to be tied to.

Or maybe I just wasn't the right guy.

You know, I mean, we're different.

We were very different people.

She was a very, very soft, quiet stay out of the way person.

And I was a bit of an aggressive person.

And maybe, maybe we just didn't fit too good.

She loved his friendship.

She was very afraid to lose the friendship if she decided she didn't want to be his partner.

It was definitely her not wanting to be with me.

That it was not the other way around and I was I was a little prickly about the whole thing and about a week later We just started, you know, we had gigs we'd go to gigs We had a bunch of gigs booked and we kept seeing each other at gigs and then when it came time to do a vacation again, we would go on vacation together and we'd record and we'd go to the movies and we go out to dinner And so it was like, it wasn't the same, but it was still good.

We were still together in a very close relationship, but not a romantic relationship.

So, pretty much to get away from the rat race of Washington DC.

After visiting just for a weekend, I had to move to Iceland.

I was 27 years old and thought, this is a place I could settle down to.

But for a brief moment, got in a band and there I met this girl named Anna Karin who was fun to be around and I couldn't help but thinking Eva has to meet this lady.

This is gonna be good for Eva.

Hair okay?

Okay, he thought that we would like each other, Which we did instantly.

And we were playing with my band at the Blue's Bar and we became basically best friends from that day.

She was singing full room of people and instantly when she started to sing, she touched basically the whole... The whole room, I mean, I can't do this.

I bought these little recorders, and so I used to just turn them on for conversations or when we were making fun in the car, where we were looking for a parking lot, and we didn't see a parking space, and we couldn't find any, so we started to sing And all these people come and go and come and go And don't they know, and don't they know, and don't they know There ain't no parking space.

This is just a taste of what it's like everyday For people in America.

Hey, they found a parking space Oh, they sure did!

We need one too.

We sure do!

Happy birthday, dear Eva!

Happy birthday to you!

Thank you!

The second verse.

I'm gonna cut your hair tomorrow.

Oh no, what are you gonna do?

I'm not gonna tell you.

No!

Not big time, you won't even notice it, but it's not going to be noticed, right?

That was one of the things that I think that brought us together, because I was very outgoing and not shy, while she was almost the opposite.

I just, I adore you, I want to be so much like you, I want to be outgoing like you.

You're like an inspiration to me and that's no bullshit, this is like real.

I want to be... Actually, Eva, I know that.

Do you?

Yeah.

You have so much to give, Eva.

You have so much spirit in yourself.

You just have to let go of it.

That's your problem.

I'm working on it.

I know, and you're getting there.

You are.

And she was starting to.

She was really starting to open up.

Get out of a picture, come on!

I tell jokes, how about a good joke?

Get out of a picture!

Guys, I'm the funny man of Georgia.

How about a good joke?

You don't wanna have to, don't give me that.

Okay.

We came here about a month before we played here to check it out, and she couldn't believe that we were gonna be playing here.

She was pretty overwhelmed by the whole thing.

We knew about, I mean, everybody knows about Blue's Alley, it's been here forever.

Blue's Alley has been a destination for music lovers for nearly 60 years.

Blue's Alley has played host to some of the biggest names for decades and decades.

We were trying to get a quick live album recorded.

Yeah, it was Eva essentially borrowed some money to do it, but the budget wasn't there, so it was as inexpensive as we could manage it.

There was no elaborate camera production, there was no lighting other than what was on the stage, so I had no control over anything and I had to fight my way round people getting up and getting hit in the arm every now and then Thank you so much for coming out.

I know its raining and everything.

And eh.

Used ADAT, right?

ADAT tapes?

Yeh.

Used ADATs and came in and set up in the afternoon and did the best we could.

Away we went.

I'm going to grab the mic away from Eva because I just have to say that I'd like you all to join me in giving a warm round of applause to our star, Eva Cassidy.

Yeah!

It's planned for two nights.

We were going to play exactly the same sets for two consecutive nights, so we would have two versions of every song to select from for the final.

But I was upstairs, and I can't remember who came up and got me and said, there's a big hum.

He put on a pair of headphones and played back some of the test tracks, and it was just like, you know, half the sound of the noise floor.

It was just this large ground hum that you couldn't get rid of it.

And so the first night was not good.

You had psyched yourself up and prepared yourself physically and mentally for this moment.

That's gone now.

So she didn't, you know, the next night was just going to be fun.

She didn't have to worry about it.

And now all of a sudden she had to worry about it.

And we realized that anything we do wrong on the second night is going to go on the album one way or the other because, you know, this is it.

Two seconds.

[Eva Cassidy singing ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water] But she had a cold and she didn't think that she was singing well and she could hear the the raspiness in her voice.

She felt that it was just bad luck that she had gotten the cold and we listened back to the tracks and she just didn't seem to think that anything that was on there was good enough.

So she sent me a disc in the mail, said, I'm sending you a copy because I don't want you to pay for this thing.

And she said very similar to the way she treated her cars, she said, when I listened to this thing, I threw the disc across the room and I believed her.

A lot of stuff that um, we all think is brilliant, amazing.

She would find some flaw in it and no, that cant go out.

I guess everybody when they have a skill, or they do something that they feel is good They can take that that and make them feel better about themselves I just dont feel she was able to convert any of her accomplishments to feeling good about herself.

I remember her talking about she wanted to just take everything and move to Iceland and I kept saying no, no, no, you're amazing, you're going to be on television you're incredible.

She's like, nah, I don't think it's going to happen And I mentioned that Fields of Gold, we should send to the Blue's Alley CD to Sting.

And she was like, and I even me when I said it, I thought that's never going to happen.

And I just don't think she understood how good she was.

You know, people say that.

And again, this is just my opinion, and I'm a singer.

I think she knew exactly how good she was.

I think when she was doing her own thing with the guitar, she was in control of it, and it was hers, and it was her ideas, and it was her direction, because maybe she felt limited in some ways.

That was her goal, to sing and play the guitar and go all over and, yeah, and have her own place.

She wanted to be her own boss, basically.

She didn't want to answer to anybody.

And she loved the band, but she just wanted her independence.

Because I think she was tired of relying on people like me and all these other people to help her.

So she drew the line.

And apparently, you know, Chris Biondo is a dominating guy But she had the utmost respect for Chris.

Her father was a dominating guy.

But ultimately, she was gonna do it her way.

Because she knew better than them.

And she knew she knew better than them.

But she learned a lot from everybody.

But in the end, the component that she added, her understanding, empathy, and the courage to reinterpret things that have been done very well before transcended all the parts that went into it.

I came out to see her on a gig.

Here she was.

She was great.

She was doing basically her own gig, doing all the music she wanted to do, and she finally did it, and she seemed the happiest I'd ever seen her.

If everything went perfectly, what would you see yourself doing in five years?

Making records, playing a lot more.

Yeah, Mom called me.

I was living in central Virginia at the time, and mom asked me, “what do you know about melanoma?” But Eva adored the sun.

She always had this need for some physical outdoors activity.

Aagh, cold!

Come on in, Eva.

Have fun girls.

It was July of 96 and she had a limp and she had complained about it and she called me and I got in my car and I met her at her parents house and that's when we had to take her to the hospital.

I still remember the expression on the x-ray tech's face.

He handed us the x-rays and just the look in his eye he said, “good luck.” And I just knew I knew something was really wrong.

So how are those hips holding up?

Hi.

How is it?

I love those earrings.

She was such a good patient, you know, we had her at home.

This is Hugh Cassidy, and he's a good guy, and very, very talented.

And he also does laundry.

And she was determined to try to go through all the different treatments to try to beat it And I remember her saying that she had been told that she had a 10 percent chance of living.

and to her the 10 percent was a good thing, which I always thought that meant that that was a pretty bad thing, but she thought 10 percent was something that was big enough to hold on to.

Tonight musicians are raising money for a local singer who is fighting cancer.

Eva Cassidy is her name.

That was at the Bayou in Georgetown, an old town in Washington.

She saw a lot of people come out there that were just truly there to support her and to show her how much that they loved her and when you're living right, that's the kind of thing that happens.

Cassidy thrilled them when she made a surprise appearance at the club.

I'm speechless.

I don't know what to say.

I'm so happy.

So I'm like, this is my big birthday or something, I don't know.

32 years old, now fighting for her life.

And the one thing I remember, Chris Biondo so very carefully and tenderly lifted her up onto a stool and she chose to sing Its a Wonderful World.

[Eva Cassidy singing ‘Its a Wonderful World] The time went on, they had found that it actually had ended up in her lungs, they had done some x-rays in her spinal column and in her brain and in her arm.

And by then it was really, really well advanced.

And so they tried chemotherapy and radiation and interferon and it didn't slow it down at all.

And her brother came from Iceland towards the end and Anna Karin, her Icelandic friend.

I had asked her if there was any music I could add my violin to and she said yes, just go to Chris's studio and pick out something you like and there we found a beautiful track called I Know You by Heart and I had never heard it before and I thought oh my gosh this is beautiful.

[Eva Cassidy singing ‘I Know You By Heart] I think the song is, at least implies, the departing of a loved one and she listened quite closely and I was kind of waiting for her to say something.

I said, “what did you think?” And she said, “well, your part was good.” [Eva Cassidy singing ‘I Know You By Heart] She was feeling really low, and I thought that because we were there, a bunch of her friends that they would go into her room and play for her a few songs but she wasn't feeling up to it so I suggested that they'd just be outside her window.

And she loved that and she made requests.

Yeah, I mean we were just playing music outside of her window trying to comfort her a little bit, trying to play a few songs she might enjoy or, you know.

So I went in and she, you know, she couldn't say much.

Barbara came in and said, there's a phone call you need to take Eva.

So I just stood there quietly and said, okay.

And Eva, “hello?” And I asked her to forgive me for not signing her.

And I couldn't hold it.

I couldn't contain myself.

It was one of the most difficult moments Ive ever had.

And she said, no, no, it's okay.

Hung up.

“That was the president of Blue Note Records He was calling to apologize for not signing me.” And I was like, oh my gosh.

I remember trying to say something and I couldn't.

So it was basically silence when I wanted to tell her how important she was to people and how beautiful and what a beautiful spirit.

But she was the one who kept talking to people and encouraging people.

And even two days before she passed away, she saw the light filtering into the Venetian Blinds And she said, Mom, look at that, how beautiful.

A few minutes after midnight on the 2nd of November, she passed away.

And Annette was with us and Margaret.

And we all raised a glass with red wine and sent her on the way Yep.

We were so lucky to have her for 33 years.

You know, she had requested that she be cremated and her ashes scattered on the St.

Mary's river.

But you know, after she passed away, we got angels from so many people.

and her dad had promised her before she passed away he would make an angel and she was very delighted about that and we have it outside.

I got a letter one day at my house in England with a recording and the letter said, Dear Sting, my dear friend Eva Cassidy recently died, but I know she would have wanted to hear her version of your song ‘Fields of Gold So I thought, well, that's a very sad story.

Anyway, I listened to the recording.

And like everybody else, I was stunned by it.

I thought there was a purity to her voice that was so compelling.

I liked the arrangement.

In fact, I stole some of the arrangement ideas back into my song.

[Eva Cassidy singing ‘Fields of Gold] And yet, what can you do, you know, she's not with us anymore.

I didn't have the imagination to imagine what could be done.

But somebody did.

I got a call from Grace Griffith She had become friends with Eva in D.C., and she just, she called me, she said, can I send you a tape?

Was the Live at Blue's Alley tape.

As soon as I heard her vocal entrance, I knew it was extraordinary.

And by the time I listened to the whole album, I realized she's one of the best singers Id ever heard.

I met Bill Straw a year or two later to talk about Eva's music, and he wanted to release it.

My initial concept was to do something that we ended up calling it Songbird.

But, I mean, that seemed like the natural title to begin with.

And Chris wasn't in favor of it because he said how can you do a best of if you've never had any hits?

And I tried to explain, it's not a best of, it's an anthology.

So I was a little, I wasn't too nice to him when I first met him.

Over the years, we've become very good friends.

And our marketing thing was to just stay at it and until it reached critical mass.

I mean, nobody expected anything to happen.

BBC Radio 2, online, on digital, and on 88 and 91 FM.

I do remember very clearly when I first heard Eva Cassidy because my producer, he came in and he said, have a listen to this, he said, somebody played this for me and I think she's fantastic, this singer.

and he said I never heard of her and even then the very first hearing, you knew that it was an outstanding talent.

Wonderful interpreter and obviously we were both taken with it and couldn't wait to play it on the radio for the first time.

It was an immediate response.

I thought we would get a reaction but I never realized quite how big the reaction would be.

The email lit up like a Christmas tree the phone started ringing, people were writing in saying who was that singing that wonderful version of ‘Over the Rainbow?

[Eva Cassidy singing ‘Over the Rainbow] An album by a complete unknown has been outselling top stars like Madonna, Craig David and Robbie Williams and doing it without any of the usual hype and publicity.

What makes Eva Cassidy's story all the more remarkable is that this album comprises rehearsal tracks and songs recorded in a restaurant in front of a dozen people.

Eva Cassidy, I'm pleased to say her album Songbird has gone platinum.

The reaction was enormous, saying where do I get this, who is this, I've never heard of this singer before.

It was huge, I mean millions and millions of albums were sold.

She's had 10 gold albums, some of which were platinum.

She wanted her variety of music and she believed her variety would sell well.

She was a hundred percent correct on that.

You know I was on the Isle of Skye I remember and I went into this little pub.

They were playing Eva Cassidy all the way out there.

That's like wherever you went they were playing her.

Why why is this doing so well?

I think it's because what you what you hear and what you see with Eve is exactly what you get There's no artifice about it, there's no pretense.

It's straight from her mouth, and this is just pure emotion.

That was what created the impulse.

Of course, the music did it all.

I also think she wouldn't have, if she had been alive, performing in big venues.

I think that would have been burdensome for her, don't you think?

She never spoke about being successful.

No, I don't think she was after it.

I really think that a lot of people, when they pursue music, do it because they want money, they want fame, they want to impress people.

And I think Eva looked at music a different way I think she wanted to be true to herself.

There was nothing fake about her.

Everything that she put out there was real, you know?

I think authenticity and soul are something that is very linked to Eva.

Eva is a wonderful example of doing what you feel is right even when the world seems against you sometimes or when they think they're helping you and they're really not helping you, you have to graciously persevere.

[Its a Wonderful World] And we found out that her music had a lot of healing qualities for people.

I really liked Eva Cassidy's voice.

Did you hear Eva Cassidy's song?

I love the way Eva speaks.

It helps me feel close to her.

When I hear Eva sing, I can see the beauty of life again.

You see people who've lost a husband or a wife or a child.

what Eva Cassidy means to me.

And Eva makes them think that there's something good in the world.

and she makes them feel so at peace.

I'm crazy about Eva Cassidy.

And that's what she does that nobody else does.

What would I've said to her?

Well, I suppose I would have been gushing and full of admiration for what she'd done and gratitude for what she'd done to my song.

You know, she gave it another dimension.

And so I'm eternally grateful for that.

She could have done great things Great things.

You miss her?

Yeh, thats not the word for it.

[Eva Cassidy singing ‘Its a Wonderful World] You know, she was ahead of her time, and she was behind her time.

She was oblivious to time.

But bubbles and orbs and things like that are things that are fleeting, usually and somehow I think Eva managed to freeze them in time.

I'm going to do some showbiz kind of stuff for you.

Ready?

And a one, and a two, and a one, two, three, go.

[Eva Cassidy singing ‘Fields of Gold ]