Jeff Buckley’s Latest Grace

A cynic might say that Jeff Buckley’s death in 1997 was an amazing career move. After all, he had only released one official album at that stage, but there always seems to be yet one more artefact for fans to buy. And here’s the latest one, to mark the 15th anniversary of that one album, Grace.

As foundations for legends go, Grace was a great one. On its strength, Buckley toured the world and stunned audiences everywhere with his powerfully evocative voice, the touching lyrics of his own songs, and impressive interpretations of the songs of others.

This collection, overseen by his mother Mary Guibert, maps out all those attributes by assembling different performances from that 1995-96 world tour (many of them from TV shows like the BBC’s Late Show and MTV Japan).

Although the idea was to focus on the album with those performances, it doesn’t stick to the original line-up, adds extra versions of the title track and So Real and, as Buckley actually didn’t perform the track Corpus Christi Carol, it’s replaced here by a rare take of What Will You Say.

But however you look at it, it’s a clever way of documenting what was to become a legendary tour. To make it even more attractive to fans, there’s a DVD combining the 12 CD performances with extra songs, an interview and other footage from the tour.

How could Buckley aficionados resist that? I’ve already ordered mine!