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.
No comments:
Post a Comment