Jeff Buckley

Jeff Buckley

Jeff Buckley; one of the most, if not THE most incredible musician of our times. He was so full of emotions and his voice can both soothe your heart and tear it into pieces. His music can give consolation or make you cry. No matter if it was his own composition or a cover version, it seemed to come straight from his heart, aiming to go right into yours.
He himself passed away in 1997, aged 30 - far too early as everybody who knows his music says. Many of his current fans came across his music after this tragic date, not having the chance ever to see Jeff Buckley perform live. His concerts must have been as incredible as his music; you can gain a little impression on what it was like on the lately released CD "Live at Sin-é"; but more on this later.

Jeff Buckley was born on November 17th 1966 in Orange County, in the US-state of California. His father, Tim Buckley, was a very talented singer/songwriter himself. Some say that Jeff's capability of filling a song with an emotional depth few have ever achieved or dared to try to do so, was somehow passed down to him from his father. Jeff, however, was always trying not to admit this. All he wanted to be was Jeff, without the shadow of his father hanging over him; a father he hardly knew since Tim Buckley died on an accidental drug overdose when Jeff was only eight years old.

Jeff Buckley

He was basically raised by his mother Mary Guibert, who is nowadays actively involved in maintaining her sons' legacy, and lived with her and his little brother until he moved to Los Angeles after he had finished high school.

In the early 1990's he moved to New York and started playing in small Pubs and Cafés. Best known are his gigs at the little Café Sin-é in lower Manhattan, where he started playing in 1992. First of all he served as a stand-in for Daniel Harnett, who had a weekly gig at Sin-é but soon Jeff took over Daniel's place and was asked to perform any time someone failed to show up for their gig. Jeff's name recognition grew and spread by "word-of-mouth" in its literal meaning, attracting more and more people to come down regularly to that certain place to listen to his music. If you wanted to listen to Jeff Buckley you had to go to the venue he was playing at, since there was no record, not even a demo tape. But this was to change in the summer of 1993 when he signed a record deal with Columbia who recorded his performances at Sin-é.

Jeff Buckley

The four-song EP Live at Sin-é was released in December of the same year, while Jeff was already in the studio with Mick Grondahl (bass), Matt Johnson (drummer), Michael Tighe (guitar), and producer Andy Wallace to record his first and only album Grace. Michael Tighe became a permanent member of Jeff Buckley's band and went on to co-write and perform on "So real".

The album Grace is a credit to its name. The first song, "Mojo Pin", creeps slowly into the air with its swirling ambient guitars and Jeff's breathy vibrato takes you away into another world. The slightly odd time signature is smoothed down by the cascades of his singing. "Grace" is one of the darker, moodier songs of the album, telling about death and sorrow; topics Jeff Buckley had a penchant for. The third song, "Last Goodbye", was at the same time the only single release in the US for this album. The song describes very authentically the feeling you get when you leave your lover's house for the last time, knowing that you can never come back, no matter how much you wanted to. The first cover version to appear on the album is a stunning version of Nina Simone's "Lilac Wine".

Jeff Buckley

The lines "I couldn't awake from the nightmare/it sucked me in and pulled me under/pulled me under/Oh, that was so real…" from "So real" now seem to have been something like a foreboding of what was to happen… With the second cover version, Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", Jeff proved his incredible talent to feel and express the emotions that a song can imply. There is no other version, not even the original, that is so heartrending, deeply emotional and spiritual than this, hands down. If you are heartbroken, trying hard not to cry: don't listen to "Lover, You Should've Come Over" or all your endeavours will be in vain. The remaining songs - ten in total; seven originals, three cover versions (the third one is Benjamin Britten's "Corpus Christi Carol") - are all as touching and charming as the ones described above. While you are listening to this album, you can be drawn into another world, Jeff's world, and it can be really hard to get back to reality.

Jeff Buckley

Jeff toured extensively around the world between 1994 and 1996; as a solo artist as well as with his band. In 2000 Columbia released an album of live performances from his touring, Mystery White Boy, and Jeff Buckley - Live In Chicago, a full-length concert on DVD or VHS of his concert at The Cabaret Metro in Chicago on May 13, 1995. Listening to a live recording can leave you with a totally different impression of a song, since Jeff often experimented and improvised on his own material. It sometimes takes several minutes before you finally recognise the tune.

At the end of 1996 and early winter 1997, Jeff and his band had intermittently recorded new material in Memphis with Tom Verlaine as producer and a new drummer, Parker Kindred. Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk, released in1998, is a collection of that material that gives a little impression of what Jeff's second album could have been like if it was recorded.

On March 31 Jeff started to play regularly scheduled Monday night sessions at Barrister's in Memphis, where he played his last gig on May 26, 1997.

Jeff Buckley

The final recordings for the not-yet-titled second album, with again Andy Wallace as producer, were scheduled to begin in late June. Jeff and his band were supposed to start rehearsing for the recording at the end of May. But it came to neither of it.

On the night of May 29, Jeff and a friend were hanging around at the Mud Island Harbour marina, half a mile inland off the Mississippi River in Memphis, Tennessee. At one point Jeff waded waist-high into the water, fully clothed, and started singing. He lay back on the water when a boat went by causing waves to come in to the shore. Jeff's friend turned his back to rescue the stereo they were listening to from the water. When he looked into the direction Jeff had been before he turned away, he couldn't see anything but the black water. After searching in vain for about ten minutes, Jeff's friend called the police that searched for several days without success - Jeff simply seemed to have vanished from this world.

Jeff Buckley-Gary Lucas

On June 4 his body was found at the foot of the city's famous Beale Street.

Nobody knows what Jeff Buckley would have become like if he were still alive. His fan club, however, is still actively organising gigs and doing whatever possible to keep his music alive. The recent CD release of Live at Sin-é and the various tribute and/or CD release parties, which sold-out extremely quickly, are only examples amongst many.
Jeff's body might have died but he's still with us- whenever you listen to his music he will whisper right into your soul.