Finding his way in the city

The Record, December 16, 1994

By Arthur Staple

Submitted by Sai

Music Preview: Jeff Buckley performs with Brenda Kahn at 9 p.m. Saturday at Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800. $12. Also 9 p.m. Sunday at Maxwell's, 1039 Washington St., Hoboken. Sold out.

Jeff Buckley was kicking around his native Southern California a few years ago, playing in a variety of nands just to make music and money, an aimless lost soul in Hollywood. He longed to be in more creative, more sensual surroundings. He thought of New York.

  "California was a lot of time for reflection, to the point where it becomes a self-devouring thing," said Buckley, who arrived in New York in 1990. "I was too much in my head. I came to New York so I could live in my body.

  "It's lonley to only find magic in my private places. So I fought my way out by coming here."

  Fought his way up to playing solo shows at Cafe Sin-e, an East Village folk-rock hub. Fought his way to a record deal with Columbia, which released "Grace" in August. And fought to make his own way in the downtown music world that had once embraced his father, Sixties folk singer Tim Buckley, who killed himself when Jeff was a boy.

  Judging by the overwhelming buzz that's been droning since a packed show at The Supper Club during September's CMJ Music Marathon, the younger Buckley is no longer standing in shadows. "This guy is something special," CMJ president Bobby Haber said when asked to name the artist to watch there. "He's extremely gifted."

  "Grace" is quite a piece of work. "Mojo Pin" opens the album with a slowly building guitar intro-this song and the title track were co-written by Captain Beefheart guitarist Gary Lucas, who also contributes guitar to the two songs-before you hear Buckley’s voice.

  It's a caressing sound, high, soft, warm-Buckley rarely dips into any low registers, instead using a powerful falsetto on several tracks. His voice drips emotion, wrapping around lines like this one from "The Last Goodbye": "Kiss me, please, kiss me/Kiss me out of desire, not consolation..."
  That song and a stirring solo cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" are among the album's best. Buckley and his band also show they can step out of the folk-rock mode with "Eternal Life," which grabs a thick bass groove and gives the song a little grunge tinge. Not bad for a group thrown together three weeks before the album was recorded.
  "We really became a band during the album," said Buckley. "Even now, we're evolving, working into a common thread."
  Touring, which Buckley was doing for a few months before the album came out, has also sharpened the group, which added guitarist Michael Tighe for live shows.
  "The biggest shock we got was in Amsterdam, about a week before CMJ. The response there...we were just flabbergasted. It hasn't been like that yet here, thankfully. We don't want to be some big sensation that's forgotten quickly. Besides, you could tell the industry types that some opera singer who eats dirt is the next punk rock, and they'd believe it."
  But Buckley hasn't bristled at the corporate side of music-besides the weekend shows, he's playing a free midnight gig at Tower Records (Broadway and Fourth Street) tonight. Being hot has its price, but Buckley said he won't give in to fame.
  "I want to do something vastly different the next time around," he announced. "Then we'll see how disposable I am."