By RUSSELL BAILLIE
(Herald rating: * * * *)
Ten years ago, a newly signed singer-songwriter used his regular New York cafe gig to record a four-track EP as his first offering.
Most didn't hear of Jeff Buckley until his debut album Grace in 1994, the only album of his solo years to
be released in his lifetime. That Live at Sin-e EP contained some solo versions for the band-backed songs which were to grace Grace.
He died while recording his second album in 1997 and there have been a small flood of posthumous releases since. Some seemed mostly designed to help to keep the fires of rock legend stoked, especially as his singer-songwriter father Tim had also died young.
This collection, which expands that EP into a two-and-a-half-hour double-disc of his entire cafe sets and a DVD which includes an interview and footage of three songs from the intimate shows, is a little daunting.
There are times when its urge to give us the whole performance, including the tuning up and the hippie-child poet pre-song monologues, makes it a little long-winded, even if some of the interludes are hilarious, especially his brief Miles Davis impersonation.
Mostly this stands as a huge monument to Buckley's wondrous voice. It's disarming enough hearing those Grace songs (Mojo Pin, Eternal Life) delivered in their raw state.
But most of this is Buckley the eclectic interpreter transforming songs by Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Leonard Cohen, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Edith Piaf, Led Zeppelin, the MC5 or Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan into something strange, haunting and glorious. A treasure trove.
Label: Columbia
