Eagles 'Desperado' 30th Anniversary Celebrated By Eva Cassidy

09-24-2024

(W3) Eva Cassidy has marked today's 30th anniversary of the recording of The Eagles classic "Desperado" by sharing her previously unreleased version of the legendary song, which will be added to her "Walkin' After Midnight" album, with CDs set to arrive on November 22nd, followed by vinyl on December 13th.

On September 24, 1994, Eva Cassidy, a little-known singer from Bowie, Maryland, performed at the now defunct Pearl's supper club in the state's capital of Annapolis. The diners sat in rapt silence in the small, dimly lit room witnessing the pure magic of the voice that would, many years later, enchant millions around the world. Since her untimely passing in 1996 from melanoma at the age of 33, singer Eva Cassidy has earned critical acclaim and an international following for her interpretive skills, selling some 12 million records in the process.

In a set list that included many of the songs for which Cassidy would become known was her interpretation of "Desperado," the first song co-written by Don Henley and Glenn Frey for their band The Eagles and the title track of their 1973 studio album. Today, exactly 30 years since that evening, Eva's performance of "Desperado" is released for the first time. Via the studio technical advances in recent years, Eva's vocal has been isolated, other instruments deleted and Lenny Williams, her keyboard player during her short career, contributes 2024 Rhodes electric piano/B-3 Hammond organ parts reminiscent of the era that spawned the song to accompany Eva's magical voice.

"It's always a privilege to work on an unreleased Eva Cassidy vocal," says Williams, "and the minute I heard the vocal for 'Desperado,' I knew we had something special. This is one of Eva's most soulful and beautiful vocal performances."

WALKIN' AFTER MIDNIGHT, a new collection now comprised of 13 never-before-released live tracks, showcases Eva Cassidy's versatile voice and sometimes familiar repertoire in a whole new light. Recorded on November 2, 1995 at the King of France Tavern, located in Annapolis' Maryland Inn, the WALKIN' AFTER MIDNIGHT collection is atypical of the material Cassidy left behind. In an unusual turn of events, two of her regular bandmates, keyboard player Lenny Williams and drummer Raice McLeod, were absent that night because the always busy Williams was booked for another gig and the venue was too intimate for McLeod's drum kit. That left only Eva and her acoustic guitar plus the other half of her band-Chris Biondo on bass and Keith Grimes on electric guitar-to back her up, so she invited award-winning D.C./Baltimore area classical, jazz and rock violinist Bruno Nasta to sit in, resulting in a new dynamic.

Cassidy connoisseurs will recognize the bulk of the song selection-only "Down Home Blues" and now "Desperado" have never appeared on a previous Cassidy collection-but the approach is refreshingly different as symphony violinist Nasta transforms into a fiddle player for the night and Cassidy's extraordinary voice fills the spaces left by the missing instruments. Rock guitarist Grimes responds with a lighter touch. Known for her wide-ranging, but unerringly tasteful, sense of material, Cassidy brings a cohesive western swing feel to WALKIN' AFTER MIDNIGHT's classic set list, including "Fever," "Summertime," "Route 66" and "Cheek to Cheek," as if she planned it that way. Thankfully, Chris Biondo, always the producer, plugged a DAT recorder into the venue's PA system, capturing the full concert.

Now "Desperado" is the finale to WALKIN' AFTER MIDNIGHT, the latest album from the multi-million-selling master interpreter. "'Desperado' has always been very special to me after hearing my sister, Eva and brother Dan perform it for me when they were young teenagers," explains Anette Cassidy. "Having been away from the family for several years I was totally blown away by their talent!"

It would be two months after the Maryland Inn show that Cassidy and her band would record the set at the Blues Alley nightclub in Washington, DC that would largely define her posthumous career. One year to the day after the Maryland Inn appearance, she would be gone.