Only 6 of the 10 tracks have ever been broadcast on TV but I know I certainly seen most of them - I do remember 'Cheek To Cheek', 'Over The Rainbow' and 'People Get Ready' from TOTP2 shows.
The DVD is only available in Region 2 and 4 - Europe and Australia but should play on computers (DVD player) as well as region free DVD players. The DVD will have to be bought from Amazon.co.uk as it is not available worldwide and Amazon.co.uk is one of the few shops to ship to the USA/Canada.
For those of you that have never heard of Eva before she is an amazing singer who unfortunately died too young from Melanoma (skin cancer). She loved the outdoors and did not carry on with her check ups after having a mole removed. She died at the age of 33 and although she never managed to break the music industry when she was still alive, she certainly is now - thanks to Terry Wogan playing her songs on Radio 2, she was finally noticed in the UK... The reason Eva did not make it when she was still here was the fact that she never fitted into a specific music genre - no one would accept her for this although there were a few close chances, it never happened. She has such a varied style - soft rock in her early days as part of 'Method Actor', Gospel, folk, country, jazz...
The Blues Alley was the host of Eva's performance and these are the tracks that were recorded the day her 'Live At Blues Alley' album was recorded. Bryan McCulley filmed all these tracks on January 3rd 1996 except 'What A Wonderful World' which was recorded on January 2nd 1996. The reason for the difference in the dates is because of a technical fault on the 2nd January so all the tracks from her Blues Alley album were taken from the 3rd. Eva was not very happy with the 'Live At Blues Alley' album because she had a cold that day and was not singing to her full potential! Well, if she can sing that well when she has a cold, the album would have been unbelievable if she did not!
I had owned a couple of these tracks (3 of them) as downloads but they certainly do not do justice to the DVD. Some of them had been edited and do not show Eva talking. That is what makes the DVD so great - no one will ever get to see Eva play live or get to see her interact with the audience, but in the DVD all this shines through. The quality of the filming is not superb but it is a home recording - Bryan holding a camera and filming his friend while she is singing on stage - who knew these would one day be shown to the world? The colour quality again is not good but while they are in colour, 'People Get Ready' and 'Over The Rainbow' are monochrome (PGR is a kind of blue tint and OTR is a more yellow / orange). People's heads do get in the way of Eva's guitar so it is hard to see what she is doing but that all adds to the atmosphere - people are there because they love to hear her.
When you first put the DVD into your player, it comes up with the title - Eva Cassidy Sings - and a choice selection of Play or Track Selection. The first option just plays the DVD as though you were watching a film and is continuous - the track fades to a black screen then begins the next one. The track selection stops after each track and takes you back to all the titles (shown in boxes) so you can choose which one you want to listen to next.
Opening up with 'What A Wonderful World' is a great start - Eva introduces it and then starts playing her guitar before singing along. As I said before, all these tracks are on her 'Live At Blues Alley' album so there is no difference to her voice although these are not edited - I did notice some parts e.g. her clearing her throat or strumming the guitar are not on the CD. Eva is sitting in front of a brick wall with the Blues Alley sign just to her right. I love the filming in the DVD - when Eva is not singing Bryan has taken the focus off Eva and moved across to other members of the Eva Cassidy band. There are some great shots of Lenny on the piano - his finger floating up and down the keys creating a magnificent sound (If only I was that talented!).
My favourites have to be 'Tall Trees in Georgia' and 'Cheek to Cheek' - both opposite ends of the spectrum, tempo wise (TTIG is a very slow track and C2C is a lot faster) but I love them! I also love 'You've Changed' as that one zooms out so you can see the whole band on the stage.
Would I recommend this DVD to anyone and everyone - YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is the only way to see her 'Live'. It is a fabulous DVD to add to your collection, especially is you are an Eva fan - or even if you are not! The DVD contains some classic songs and will never loose their charm.
Minor details - total length: 45 minutes 53 seconds
