Fringe 2023 Eva Cassidy 60 Years theSpaceUK @ Surgeons’ Hall 11th August Review
Eva Cassidy 60 Years, at theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall by Elsa Jean McTaggart is a celebration of the life and music of an iconic singer who sadly never lived long enough to see her music become loved by millions of people across the world, or enjoy the fame that came with all of that happening.
Eva Cassidy would be 60 years old this year (born 4 Feb 1963 – died 2 November 1996) and to celebrate this, a new album “It Can Only Be Me” with Eva Cassidy’s original vocal parts isolated and accompanied by the London Philharmonic Orchestra performing orchestral arrangements of many of her most famous songs was released on her birthday. It is a selection of songs from this album, and others, that Elsa Jean McTaggart performs in this show.
Elsa and Eva seem to somehow have a symbiotic relationship with one another that goes beyond the music, and this has been obvious at any of Elsa’s Eva Cassidy shows that I have been at over the years. To Elsa, Eva Cassidy is not just a voice on the radio, or a CD, there is something in this music, in Eva Cassidy herself that Elsa so obviously relates to at a very personal level and we get a few insights into why this is so in this show. Eva Cassidy 60 Years is simply a show made out of love and respect and this is what makes it so special.
With songs that included “Songbird”, “People Get Ready”, “Time After Time” and “Tall Trees In Georgia” on the set list, this show is a chance to catch one of the few singers that I know with a voice to do justice to the Eva Cassidy arrangements of these songs perform them, and like Eva, Elsa’s voice can so easily make her often very subtle but very effective guitar playing skills get overlooked. Here today, Elsa, her favourite guitar “Greta”, a Gretsch White Falcon (maybe Gretschen would have been a better name?) made a perfect combination for some of these songs. For some reason “Over The Rainbow” is not on the new album, but don’t worry, it is in the set and Elsa’s vocals and performance of this song can somehow make time stand still for just a few moments.
There were at times some unexpected moments in this show but I actually liked that, this is why I like live music so much, the unexpected can happen at any time and Elsa handled any little surprises with her usual light touch and humour that put her audience immediately at ease, much as Eva Cassidy so often did in her own live shows. There are also a few surprises in this show too but I am not going to give them away in this review.
Perhaps the one thing that connects Elsa to Eva is not her voice, but that glimpse of fragility that is there on-stage at times, and a lot of love for the songs that are being performed.
Sometimes I have to wonder what the pressures of global success and the relentless invasion of the media in all of its many forms now would have done to Eva Cassidy had she still been alive. We will sadly never know the answer to that question, but as long as performers like Elsa Jean McTaggart are out there singing her songs out of nothing but love for them, Eva Cassidy and her music will live on for a very long time.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Eva Cassidy would be 60 years old this year (born 4 Feb 1963 – died 2 November 1996) and to celebrate this, a new album “It Can Only Be Me” with Eva Cassidy’s original vocal parts isolated and accompanied by the London Philharmonic Orchestra performing orchestral arrangements of many of her most famous songs was released on her birthday. It is a selection of songs from this album, and others, that Elsa Jean McTaggart performs in this show.
Elsa and Eva seem to somehow have a symbiotic relationship with one another that goes beyond the music, and this has been obvious at any of Elsa’s Eva Cassidy shows that I have been at over the years. To Elsa, Eva Cassidy is not just a voice on the radio, or a CD, there is something in this music, in Eva Cassidy herself that Elsa so obviously relates to at a very personal level and we get a few insights into why this is so in this show. Eva Cassidy 60 Years is simply a show made out of love and respect and this is what makes it so special.
With songs that included “Songbird”, “People Get Ready”, “Time After Time” and “Tall Trees In Georgia” on the set list, this show is a chance to catch one of the few singers that I know with a voice to do justice to the Eva Cassidy arrangements of these songs perform them, and like Eva, Elsa’s voice can so easily make her often very subtle but very effective guitar playing skills get overlooked. Here today, Elsa, her favourite guitar “Greta”, a Gretsch White Falcon (maybe Gretschen would have been a better name?) made a perfect combination for some of these songs. For some reason “Over The Rainbow” is not on the new album, but don’t worry, it is in the set and Elsa’s vocals and performance of this song can somehow make time stand still for just a few moments.
There were at times some unexpected moments in this show but I actually liked that, this is why I like live music so much, the unexpected can happen at any time and Elsa handled any little surprises with her usual light touch and humour that put her audience immediately at ease, much as Eva Cassidy so often did in her own live shows. There are also a few surprises in this show too but I am not going to give them away in this review.
Perhaps the one thing that connects Elsa to Eva is not her voice, but that glimpse of fragility that is there on-stage at times, and a lot of love for the songs that are being performed.
Sometimes I have to wonder what the pressures of global success and the relentless invasion of the media in all of its many forms now would have done to Eva Cassidy had she still been alive. We will sadly never know the answer to that question, but as long as performers like Elsa Jean McTaggart are out there singing her songs out of nothing but love for them, Eva Cassidy and her music will live on for a very long time.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com