New Eva Cassidy - "Imagine"

Garfish my pleasure."Imagine" received to-day from CD Now and have played a couple of times - the title track is just spine tingling as is "Who knows where the time goes" ,but not quite as good as Sandy Denny version who is my all time favourite vocalist. Pity all her recordings are of such ordinary quality having been recorded in the late 60's early 70's. Although her recently released double CD "No more sad refrains" is an excellent selection of her work. Also the recording seems to be a bit better than on her various CDs.Sadly she like Eva is no longer with us.

I havent heard the new cd enough to make up my mind, but I have some impressions. If you are an Eva fan (I certainly am), you will want this cd. If you have never heard her before, you should start with the earler cds. Friends of mine say they break up over her rendition of Danny Boy. I don't. I don't think there's a song on this cd that she makes her own the way she does with, e.g., Wade in the Water, People Get Ready, Time After Time, Over the Rainbow or Fields of Gold. But that's to be expected. Except for the Chuck Brown cd and Blues Alley, we're talking about compilations. The best material came out first.

I'm still glad I have the new cd, and I am going to give it a more thoughtful hearing soon. Maybe today.

As you can tell, I'm with Paulwp (esp on his choice of favorite tracks). No goosebumps here, even tho its the best audio quality so far. Worth having, but somehow its doesn't seem that Eva made an emotional connection with these songs.

I bought "Imagine" and found the studio ambiance is wonderful. Her voice is clear and effortless and her guitar is very good. What is missing for me is her emotion that is so strong on her earlier recordings. At times the raw, not perfect nature of this recording is better than the early ones, it shows Eva as she was experimenting with well known songs, but the finished quality is not at the point of the earlier disks.

As I think about what little I know of Eva, she was a perfectionist and had very little self confidence. My guess is these recordings did not meet her or her parents expectations for Eva and thus have become secondary releases. For any Eva fan this is a must own disk, it is very good, but for those who want to own just two or three it's not to the standard of "Live at Blues Ally", "Songbird" or my daughter and my 'cuddle' disk "Time After Time".

JD- you've got it right. Guitar and voice excellent, performance only so-so. Its a little sterile sounding. For me, the emotional impact of her work is primary and I must admit to being a little disappointed.