Grace: The Prequel

As I've pointed out on numerous occasions, one of the really nice perks of writing here is that people send me all sorts of great music I otherwise wouldn't have been exposed to. The latest example -- Tim Buckley: My Fleeting House -- comes courtesy of occasional Eschaton poster Emma Peel , who apparently either knows or is related to someone who worked on it.

What it is, of course, is a revelatory collection of all of Buckley's extant TV performances, from his first appearance singing "Song to the Siren" on a 1967 episode of The Monkees to a gorgeous reading of Fred Neil's "The Dolphins" on the BBC a few months before his death in 1975. Almost all the performances are uncut, video and sound quality is really good (this is NOT a bootleg, BTW -- it was done with the full cooperation of Buckley's family) and there are also interesting contemporary commentaries by members of his band and noted critic David Browne (who went to high school with my good buddy Steve Schwartz -- hey, this is my soapbox and I'll work in a gratuitous reference to myself if I damn well feel like it!).

Oh, and have I mentioned there are guest appearances by Leonard Bernstein and Steve Allen?

Anyway, the long and the short of it is that this is a really terrific package by an artist -- revealed here as a mesmeric live presence -- whose hard-to-pigeonhole work is at long last getting the wider recognition it deserves. Here's a five minute teaser trailer that gives you a good idea of what to expect.



You can order it -- and you should -- right here.

Incidentally, Jeff's name never comes up in the commentaries, but the similarities between father and son are really kind of hard to ignore.