Seven years after she lost her battle with cancer, Eva Cassidy's estate are still milking her back catalogue as energetically as ever. American Tune is yet another collection of her out-takes and demos, tastefully packaged but patently lacking the 'oomph' factor that made Songbird such a huge bestseller. Drawn from disparate sources, the tracks here are mostly gentle, folksy takes on old standards such as 'Yesterday', 'God Bless The Child' and 'The Water Is Wide', each one delivered with the Washington singer's familiar expressiveness and warmth. It's all very tasteful and, despite accusations of grave-robbing, there's a good case to be made that these recordings should be publically available rather than gathering dust in some archive. But now that Cassidy has achieved the recognition she was never granted during her lifetime, it's surely time that she was left in peace.
