Album: Eva Cassidy, Simply Eva (Blix Street)

A posthumous phenomenon to dwarf even Nick Drake, Eva Cassidy's last three albums all topped the UK chart, and there's every chance that Simply Eva will follow suit.

On previous releases, Cassidy has usually been accompanied by small ensembles, but here she's presented completely solo, with only her own acoustic guitar supporting her on such material as "Kathy's Song" and "Autumn Leaves", the intimacy of the latter leaving one feeling like an intruder on private reverie. Her sluggish strumming is a slight distraction from her flawless realisation of "Who Knows Where the Time Goes", but leaves plenty of room for her moving, blues-inflected reading of Curtis Mayfield's gospel classic "People Get Ready", while her jazz-tinged treatment of "Over the Rainbow" surely now represents the definitive delivery of the standard.

DOWNLOAD THIS Over the Rainbow; People Get Ready; Autumn Leaves