Cassidy, whose pure, powerful voice caused a collective spontaneous reaction around the world that she did not live to witness, continues to touch her millions of fans, more than seven years after her death on Nov. 2, 1996 from melanoma at the age of 33. Cassidy remains an international sensation. Fans hear a connection to heaven in her voice; critics praise her sensitivity, her superb interpretive skills, and her ability to sing anything with time-stopping beauty and grace
“For anyone who suspects that record companies will soon be releasing Eva Cassidy’s voice mail messages, it’s extraordinarily pleasing to note that Imagine is more than just a bottom-of-the-barrel-scraping exercise. All of these tracks are previously unreleased and most are live recordings, but listeners who already own Live at Blues Alley know just how refreshing Cassidy’s live performances were. Check out her take on Sandy Denny’s ‘Who Knows Where the Time Goes?’ to feel a shiver of delight at another effortlessly ideal cover, or listen to her laid-back ‘You’ve Changed’ from the Blues Alley sessions to experience more of her soulful jazz. Elsewhere, the solo acoustic reading of Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘Early Morning Rain’ shows off her guitar skills, and if ‘Imagine’ doesn’t ever scale the heights of Songbird’s ‘Over the Rainbow’ it still demonstrates how she always had something new and uniquely compelling to say when performing a familiar standard.
“Studio recordings ‘Still Not Ready’ and ‘I Can Only Be Me’ are, oddly perhaps, the least successful cuts. Happily, the album concludes with another lovely solo standard, ‘Danny Boy.’ The recording quality varies noticeably from track to track, and there are a few awkward fade-outs — presumably to remove audience noise — but still the sparkling music comes across quite vividly. Imagine may not be the best way to discover Eva Cassidy for the first time, but established fans will warmly welcome this new collection.” — Amazon.com
