Eva Cassidy was a Washington D.C.-based vocalist whose interpretations of jazz, blues, folk, and pop standards became touchstones for expressive, emotionally honest singing. Though she recorded throughout the 1990s, her artistry gained wider recognition after her death in 1996, when her albums were reissued and discovered by listeners worldwide. Her approach to song interpretation, stripped of artifice, grounded in lyrical clarity, and marked by her warm, distinctive voice, offers vocalists a masterclass in how conviction and vulnerability can transform familiar material.