WALKIN’ AFTER MIDNIGHT
Eva Cassidy’s Walkin’ After Midnight collection was recorded on the
second of November, 1995, at The King of France Tavern, located in The
Maryland Inn, downtown Annapolis,
The Maryland Inn performances have long been among my Eva favorites.
Five have appeared on previous Eva albums. Until recently I had been under the
impression that the Maryland Inn date was booked as a warm-up for the now
famous Blues Alley live recording sessions scheduled for just after the upcoming
New Year, on the second and third of January, 1996. But, it didn’t add up. Two of
Eva’s regular band mates, keyboard player Lenny Williams and drummer Raice
MacLeod, didn’t make the Maryland Inn gig. Instead of the usual line-up, it was
just Eva and her acoustic guitar, accompanied by the other half of her band, Chris
Biondo on bass and Keith Grimes on electric guitar, with guest artist Bruno Nasta.
An award winning crossover classical, jazz and rock violinist from the
D.C./Baltimore area, Nasta’s credits range from The National Gallery Orchestra to
his improvisatory violin solos featured on the Grammy winning Bon Appetite
album by Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer.
The intriguing thing about this one night batch of recordings is the way
Eva’s voice dances in the space created by the absence of additional instruments.
While Bruno Nasta somehow morphed from a symphony violinist into a fiddle
player, the band’s virtuoso blues/rock guitarist, Keith Grimes, responded with a
lighter touch more befitting, dare I say it, a Western Swing Band.
Those who saw the Ken Burns Country Music Public Television
documentary, along with disappearing dyed-in- the-wool Western Swing fans,
will recall artists like Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, who performed much of
the same repertoire as the jazz and pop bands of their day. The same songs, with
different instruments, often featured fiddle/lead electric guitar interplay.
While re-listening during the Covid shut down I noticed the ‘Western
Swing’ phrase doodled on my old Maryland Inn track list, with a question mark.
The penny finally dropped. Distinctly different Eva Cassidy magic had been hiding
in plain sight.
Neither Chris Biondo or Keith Grimes could shed light on how the gig
came about. Chris said it was all Eva’s doing. She invited Bruno to sit in, Bruno
showed up and Chris, as always (thank you, Chris!), plugged a DAT recorder into
the house PA system. Keith was surprised, and a little annoyed, after many band
rehearsals, to find himself playing with an unrehearsed fiddle player. But it
worked out. He and Bruno became friends over the years, and Bruno added his
instrument to several of the five Emmy winning National Geographic
Channel scores created by Lenny Williams and Chris Biondo.
Bruno Nasta had initially met Eva at a Four Season’s Hotel wedding in
Tyson Corner (greater Vienna), Virginia, where Eva was performing. Bruno, whose
band was playing in the same hotel that night, beheld Eva for the first time, and
vice versa. When I spoke with him about this project, Bruno remembered his first
impression of Eva: “beyond critique, pure joy.” He didn’t recall why Eva had
invited him to her Maryland Inn adventure but, “It may have had to do with Eva
missing playing with her brother, Dan, a superb fiddler who had moved to
Iceland.” When I asked him about a deft group modulation going into the final
chorus of the title song, Bruno confirmed there had been no rehearsal. He was
simply winging it “whenever those blue eyes signaled me to come in.” The
modulation “must have been a couple of hours into the show, after I settled into
Keith’s hand cues.”
On November 2, 1995, Eva Cassidy’s Blues Alley date lay a scant two
months into her future. One year, to the day, after her Maryland Inn performance
she would be gone.
Twenty nine years on, Eva Cassidy’s musical legacy around the world
continues to expand. These twelve tracks are all previously unreleased Eva
recordings, comprised of twelve new recordings that contain eleven previously
released songs along with one previously unreleased song: Down Home Blues.
Together, they are literally a ticket back to Eva’s accidental Western Swing Night.
Bill Straw
Founder/President
Blix Street Records
