"Looking out the door i see the rain fall upon the funeral mourners
Parading in a wake of sad relations as their shoes fill up with water"

Lover, You Should Have Come Over

There is any number of artists I could go to next from Leonard Cohen... he has written countless songs over his nearly 50 years in the industry and those songs have been covered by a myriad of artists all around the world so the connections he has made are endless.  But because I mentioned him last post and I adore him I am going to take, what is likely the most obvious route, to Jeff Buckley.  Most people know him for his exquisite cover of Cohen's song "Hallelujah", a song that has been covered more than 300 different times.  Of course it comes down to personal preference but to my mind no one has come close to doing for the song what Buckley did.  His voice is ethereal and he does not sing the song, he becomes one with it, he pours his heart, soul and every ounce of his being in to every word, every syllable that he sings.  The result of merging Cohen's song with Buckley's voice and interpretation is something unearthly and if you have not heard his version you need to listen to it, and I mean really listen, devote the full 7 minutes to direct your attention to it entirely. There is absolutely no way that anyone could ever explain to you what came out of this man's voice when he sang and the effect that it can have on a person if given the chance.  Because Buckley's voice was so incredible a lot of people don't realize his skill as a guitarist.  For many years, he was known only as a guitarist amongst his peers and apparently his close friends didn't even know he could sing, with a range of 4 octaves no less!  And despite being known best for a cover he was a brilliant songwriter as well.  His only full studio album, Grace, has a number of original songs as well as covers and they are all worth listening to.  Anyway, I could clearly go on talking about him for a long time so I will leave it there with a recommendation to listen to the album in its entirety and a link to the title track which is written by Buckley and his friend Gary Lucas and really displays his vocal range and power as well as his skill as a songwriter and guitarist.