Jeff Buckley: Ten Years Later

There never will be another Jeff Buckley.

The tender-voiced singer always sang as if he were on the brink of tears, in his very short career, is amongst the greatest singer songwirters of our time. Buckley only released one albums during his brief life, Grace. He was finishing a work that became Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk, when he drowned in Memphis in 1997 at the age of 30.

I was devastated.

There are very few artists who can move me the way Jeff did. I am a lover of musicians that are unafraid to explore the underbelly of their emotional life. Jeff not only sang, he begged. He wept. He howled.

As with most artists who are from this earth untimely ripped, Buckley has become an enigma. Those who were lucky enough to see him live, recall those performances fondly. And there are people, understanding the gravity of his loss, who lie about having seen him.

Jeff endeared himself to legions of gay fans (me included) partly because of his smoldering good-looks, and his live performances oftypically female jazz standards like The Man That Got Away, or Nina Simone's Lilac Wine. On Opened Once from Sketches, Jeff sings

I once was open, and one with a travelling heart.

I loved this sweet guy.

Just like a fiction rushing in your riverbed,

Arise like applause in my head.

It occurs to me now that we are nearing the 10th anniversary of his death (It really does. This is not a literary device to transition this musing into a relevant point.). That must be why Sony is releasing a new CD called So Real: Songs of Jeff Buckley, and Amazing Grace, a DVD of live performances on May 22. Buckley died on May 29th, 1997.

It looks like the tracks on the disc are mostly from his CDs, so there will be few surprises for fans, but it may be a good jump-off for the newbie. But I have heard that Buckley was an amazing live performer, so the DVD will be a treat for those of us who consider him the one that got away.