Though Eva Cassidy's own life was cut tragically short in 1996, the American singer's music and expressive soprano voice continue to reach new generations of listeners. Born in Washington, D.C., in 1963, Cassidy performed with a wide variety of local acts through the '80s before her gifts fully flourished on a series of independent recordings the following decade. Cassidy's renditions of songs such as Sting's "Fields of Gold" and Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" became showcases for her emotive power and stylistic dexterity as she intermingled blues, jazz, folk, pop, soul, and more. Two years after Cassidy died of melanoma at the age of 33, airplay for her ache-filled cover of "Over the Rainbow" turned the compilation Songbird into a surprise hit in the UK. Further reissues brought Cassidy the wider audience she'd always deserved.