Posted on: June 25, 2009 Posted by: John B. Moore Comments: 0

You’d have to go back pretty far to find a story of wasted musical talent as tragic as Jeff Buckley. The son of folkie Tim Buckley, Jeff was a struggling singer/songwriter playing clubs in New York’s East Village in the 90’swho was finally discovered by Columbia Record execs, who put out his only studio album “Grace.” The record was extremely promising, but took years to find a following. As Buckley was in Memphis preparing a follow up in 1997, he drowned one night in a river.

Over the past 15 years, there’ve been a handful of reissues, live albums, and demo collections, of various quality. Released to commemorate the 15th anniversary of its debut, the Limited Edition CD/DVD Legacy Records has put together is pretty impressive. The CD includes 12 live versions of the songs off of “Grace” recorded across the globe in ’94 and ‘95. Buckley’s take on Leonard Cohen’s often-covered “Hallelujah” is still remarkable in its simplicity, as is the equally haunting “Grace” (captured here twice from the BBC Late Show and MTV’s 120 Minutes). This collection also comes with a retrospective hour-long documentary on Buckley’s short life ”Amazing Grace” – solid, but not exactly exhaustive – and a second DVD with 17 live takes. This collection is well worth the investment for longtime Buckley devotees and neophytes alike.

Top Tracks: “Hallelujah,” “Mojo Pin,” “Grace” and “So Real”

Rating: 8.4 out of 10

Jeff Buckley – Grace Around the World: Limited Edition (CD/DVD)/ 12 Tracks on CD and 17 on DVD/Legacy and Columbia Records/www.jeffbuckley.com

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