Release Date: January 25, 2011 Label: Blix Street Grade: A

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It's a truism of art that some of the greatest in their field are never fully recognized until after their deaths. Such it is with Eva Cassidy, a singer whose talents touched and influenced numerous performers who went on to find some commercial success bouyed on the notes of Cassidy's music.

Simply Eva is the latest posthumous release of Cassidy recordings, each one being just as the title suggests -- simply Eva Cassidy and a lone acoustic guitar, performing in different venues and studios. As it should be, Simply Eva opens with "Songbird," a Fleetwood Mac tune that has become Cassidy's signature song. The performance here is only the beginning of an exhibition of Cassidy's crystalline vocal qualities, as she makes angelically smooth transitions between notes and octaves without the scarcest hesitation or fluctuation.

I've said to others that listening to Simply Eva is a spiritual experience. Perhaps some of that owes to the fact that the album contains a number of traditional spiritual songs, such as "Wayfaring Stranger" and "Wade in the Water," as well as Curtis Mayfield's freedom movement anthem, "People Get Ready."

The album also includes a performance of Jesse Fuller's "San Francisco Bay Blues." This song is a bit of a departure, stylistically, from the others on the track listing, but it's definitely the kind of thing Cassidy did that inspired singers like Katie Melua. Other classic standards include Sandy Denny's "Who Knows Where the Time Goes" and Paul Simon's "Kathy's Song," where Cassidy's guitar chops get to shine, often being overshadowed by the allure of her voice.

An a capella rendition of "I Know You By Heart" serves as a heart-grabbing (and heart-stopping) punctuation to the set. It's just barely under a minute long, but seems so much longer when you realize you've forgotten to breathe since the first note.