Like many other people I was moved by the poignancy of Eva's story when I first heard it as well as the beauty of her voice. And something else struck me as well.
Eva it seemed would not be pigeonholed. She liked and sang all types of music including country, jazz, blues, and gospel. You have only to hear her version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" to appreciate the range and depth of her talent.
Unfortunately, because she never specialized in one musical genre, Eva Cassidy was never signed by a major record label. Record companies like to classify performers, and Eva, who was all over the map musically, did not fit into a neat marketable category. The few recordings of her work that exist today were recorded on small local labels. As a result she never received the widespread distribution and promotion that might have resulted in recognition during her lifetime.
My research on Eva Cassidy has revealed that she was a very shy woman. She had modest ambitions and no illusions about fame and glory. She chose songs that were meaningful to her, songs she enjoyed singing and performing. Eva didn't sing for the approval of others. She didn't sing for recognition or money. She sang because she loved to sing. She sang to be true to herself and her talent.
The fact that we know of Eva and her musical legacy today is proof that an authentic voice has the resiliency and the power to somehow eventually rise over the din of crowd-followers and pessimists and be heard. Had Eva taken a different road, done the popular thing, gone for the "hits", would her voice and indeed her story resonate as it does for us today years after her death? Of course, this is something we can never know.
Like Eva Cassidy, we all have our own authentic voices, not singing voices perhaps, but methods of expression that are unique to each of us. And like Eva we only get one life that we know of - the life we are living now - in which to have our voices heard.
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