Tim Buckley

A restless musician with an amazing four octave vocal range, Tim Buckley started out as a folk singer in the late sixties. This early, straightforward music morphed in unusual ways, as Buckley introduced new elements: psychedelia, jazz, funk, rock, avant-garde. One result of this urge to explore was that listeners found it a challenge to connect with albums that varied from each other so much. Was this the introspective romance of Happy Sad or the experimental out-there poetics of Lorca? Or the steamy funk-rock of Greetings From L.A.?

After Buckley’s death at the age of twenty-eight (two years younger than his son, Jeff), a number of posthumous releases have appeared. One of the best is Dream Letter: Live in London 1968, where Buckley is accompanied by a skilled, sympathetic trio comprising Lee Underwood (guitar), Danny Thompson on bass and vibraphonist David Friedman. The boxed set of Tim Buckley’s first six albums is the way to go if you love his soaring, swooning vocal stylings.