Buckley's back

Burntwood Post: March 9, 1995

By Chris Evans

  It's been a good few years since anyone connected with the rock fraternity merited the once over-worked description "godlike genius", but Jeff Buckley comes close.

  Having conquered an audience at the Connaught Hotel armed with just an electric guitar last year, last Thursday he returned with his band and left a packed Wulfrun Hall gaping with awe.

  It's the Buckley voice that most beggars belief. Its range comfortably surpasses even top shouters like Robert Plant, its sensuousness brings to mind the great jazz vocalists.

  As ever Buckley's own songs were supplemented by some judicious covers. Old favorites like Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah and Elkie Brooks'Lilac Wine held the audience as rapt as ever, while ferocious versions of the MC5's Kick Out The Jams and Big Star's Kangaroo gave Buckley's excellent band a chance to let rip.

  If there's any justice Buckley will be a star of global proportions within 12 months.

Drifting away with the grace of genius

Chelsea News: March 2, 1995

By Chris Folley

LIKE father, like son-or not, as New York rock enigma Jeff Buckley would insist we believe.

  It's a thankless task, particularly in a music industry where hereditary influences crop up so regularly through writers seeking their definitive angle.

  This well-worn theme will inevitably dominate the pre-gig chatter down Shepherd's Bush way on Saturday. Buckley, son of the cult '60s blues-folk singer Tim Buckley, plays at the Empire in a show likely to induce "spirituality" among the audience as any straightforward musical appreciation.

  Yet this "parental guidance" is something of an albatross hanging around young Jeff, now 28, lapping up the acclaim for his debut LP Grace.

Annoys

  What so annoys Buckley Jr is that having only briefly met his wayward father when he was eight, we probably know Tim-whose eight LPs enjoyed little commercial success-better than he does.

  But the comparisons will always linger when you hear this brief encounter in mind, because the resemblances are spookily uncanny; genetic similarities are easy enough to explain, but a similar taste in experimentation, mixing everything from Led Zeppelin-style anthems (Mojo Pin) to mournful ballads (Corpus Christi) and blues takes some believing.

  And then there is THAT voice: a trembling falsetto so eerie and unlike anything you've heard before-unless you were a fan of Tim's too. Its effortless drifting seems so appropriate for a maverick character who has spent most of his life wandering aimlessly from town to town.

  Jeff now has roots in New York's trendy East Side and not surprisingly, his influences are diverse-from Hendrix, Dylan and Patti Smith to Nina Simone...even Benjamin Britten.

  A misfit? 200,000 buyers of Grace obviously think not. This is one show not to be missed.

Jeff Buckley plays at the Shepherd's Bush Empire on Saturday March 4, doors open at 7.30pm. "Grace", out on Columbia Records, is available at most retail outlets.

Glastonbury autograph

"A beautiful guy inside and out Jeff Buckley. He signed this in the beer tent on that day. Yes, that is 27 year old Glastonbury mud still on that ;-)"-@HashtagMotion on Twitter