I have been trying to decide one of two directions to go from Jeff Buckley: Glen Hansard or Tim Buckley.  Glen preformed with him in the 90s and they became good friends and Glen himself, is a wonderful talent.  Perhaps most well known for the film Once and the resulting duo The Swell Season he also has a band, The Frames, and his latest work is a brilliant debut solo album.  He was also a good friend and busking partner of Mic Christopher who I talked about in one of my first posts.  That being said, I decided to go the Tim Buckley route.  Tim was Jeff's father and although they had very little to do with each other during their all to short lives there are some striking similarities between them.  They look eerily alike, both have incredible, spine tingling multi-octave voices, pure talent for singing and songwriting and they both died entirely too young, Jeff at 30 and Tim at 28.

Tim was a talent that was, and still is, too often overlooked.  He released 9 studio albums and died with little more than an amp and guitar to his name.  His style changed throughout his short career as he dabbled in everything from folk, experimental rock, funk, soul even jazz but he can not be defined by a genre and because there is such a wide range in his music I will admit that not all of his work is my cup of tea but it means that it is very likely that most people will be able to find at least one song that strikes them.  His voice has the ability to make every hair on your body stand on end and his perfect pitch and vocal control is truly staggering.  With a beautiful vibrato, he could move effortlessly through his vocal range while maintaining a purity to his voice.  The textures and layers that he creates with the control he has over his voice is something close to perfection in my mind and I have yet to find his vocal equal.  For such a young man, he released his first album at 19 and died at 28, there is a richness and wisdom to his voice and songwriting that is rare.  Like his son, he filled each song with both power and softness, pouring emotion into every beat and of course they both made it look easy!  I am finding it hard to pick one song to post along with this so I am going to name a few of my favourites...  "Song to the Siren" (probably his best known), "Dolphins", "Sweet Surrender", "Look At the Fool", "I Never Asked to Be Your Mountain", and because there is just something about it that gets me every time (I have listened to it 5 times while writing this!) I am going to put a link to "Phantasmagoria in Two"...     

p.s. In a strange twist of fate that I find intriguing, Robert Plant, of Led Zepplin, notes Tim Buckley as one of his influences as a singer and Led Zepplin was Jeff Buckley's favourite band and a major influence on him... curious!