A tribute show can be an unruly beast. Though often noble in intention, recreating classic bands or albums means playing with a particularly sentimental fire.
Songs become unrecognisable, guest musicians struggle to find a connection. Yet with a production such as A State Of Grace, celebrating the music of both the late Tim and Jeff Buckley, the enlisted talent is of rare pedigree. Gary Lucas, friend and collaborator to the younger Buckley, is the musical director overseeing a troupe that includes celebrated Canadian-American performer Martha Wainwright, among several outstanding others.
“I think this is a little bit different to some of the other tributes I’ve done, yes,” Wainwright says. “I think there is more consideration to keep to the spirit in many ways. Especially with certain songs. It’s a difficult balance, and obviously being a female singer it will be different right away. I think with Jeff’s music, it’s really the music of a young man, so it’s an interesting thing for me to sing. There’s a separation between me and the person he was, our lives and our perceptions of things.
“But I really wanted to do this because I think that Jeff and Tim are such great artists, and I’m quite happy to be along for the ride. Gary has some strong ideas on how he wants to do it, and I’m keen to try it as Jeff would sing them. But if that doesn’t work, we’ll find something else. They’re versatile songs, so we’ll be starting from the original and going from there.”
[Pictured Martha Wainright]
“It’s bittersweet, that’s for sure,” Lucas says via Skype, his signature hat almost hiding his face completely. “But that was always a hallmark of the music we did. A lot of songs began as guitar instrumentals I’d composed with [Jeff’s] voice in mind. His voice was calling to me in the distance; I could always imagine it there. But those songs are all very bittersweet – they go through these time changes that tell stories full of mixed messages. And I think that’s one of the reasons these songs still endure. They strike a chord that resonates with people. They’re not typical pop songs, they’re not formulaic. They have mood shifts and are a more realistic model of the way things really are. Every day has ups and downs, full of moments of happiness, sadness. I think the songs here show all of that.”
In addition to being respected as one of the world’s greatest guitarists, Lucas was also instrumental in Jeff Buckley’s early career, co-writing both the songs ‘Mojo Pin’ and ‘Grace’. Their collaborations were further enhanced with the 2002 album Songs To No One, recorded in the early ’90s after Lucas met Jeff rather unexpectedly at a tribute concert honouring his father.
“I was totally unaware that Tim had a son until the producer of that tribute, Hal Willner, introduced me to this guy Jeff, who had come forward and wanted to pay respects to his dad on the show. And I was totally surprised! I didn’t know Tim had a son, and neither did they. But it was a great moment, and I have to commend Hal for tremendous foresight. Somehow he intuited that I would be a good creative fit with Jeff.
“When I first met Jeff at the Church of St. Ann’s in Brooklyn, he was full of enthusiasm for my having worked with Captain Beefheart, for instance. He loved Beefheart, so I think that was a plus to him. Plus it turns out he’d just been spying on me and this female singer I was working with, doing a song in the chapel. Jeff was there, unbeknownst to me, lurking in the back in the shadows.”
Wainwright’s own exposure to Jeff Buckley came early in her career, as she moved from Montreal to develop her musical ambitions in New York City. There, she found a community still reeling from the loss in 1997 of one of the most distinct and enduring voices to emerge in a culture already brimming with aspirant talent. She, like so many others, quickly grew enamoured of the virtuosic album, Grace.
“I didn’t know Jeff. I only moved to New York a year after he had died, when I was 20, but his spirit loomed incredibly large. Everybody was playing his music, it was almost omnipresent. I was in the East Village, and people were still very much mourning him. He was really a kind of god to them. Still is. So that’s what I know, and that’s kind of what I’ll be trying to bring, that knowledge of how much he still means to people. For me, the music and lyrics are the things that last longest. Knowing people are still playing both Tim and Jeff in new ways.
“It’s always fun, hearing people cover your songs and bringing something new. They really make it their own. I do think in some small way I’ve influenced a certain set of female singers. I’ve met a couple who do seem to be influenced by some of my aggressive songwriting,” Wainwright laughs. “My emotive singing, or something. I think a lot of singers have a sound that they just can’t escape. I certainly had that. Even when I was ten, I sounded like I was singing through a pack of cigarettes. Sometimes you just have to work with the voice you’ve got, and you play around with that until you settle into something that’s hopefully unique. I’d say that was the case with Tim, and most definitely with Jeff. I think so many young male artists in particular were influenced by his singing style. You can hear that around still, and so I really think that’s a kind of immortality.”
A State Of Grace will arrive at the Enmore Theatre as part of its world premiere tour Down Under – almost 20 years since Jeff Buckley played that very same venue on his final Australian tour. While both Jeff and Tim were equally engaging songwriters, it is Buckley Jr. who local audiences are likely more familiar with. Despite this, Lucas has little doubt that people are going to be stunned by the similarities between father and son. The strength of the performers assembled here is one thing, yet as Wainwright herself has noted, it is the songs that will capture and engage, finding endless resonance in listeners to come, as Grace continues to sound across bedrooms and barrooms the world over.
“I’m hoping people have that ‘wow’ moment!” Lucas laughs. “‘Wow, this was a phenomenal, new way of listening to some of our favourite artists!’ Probably they won’t know Tim as well as they know Jeff, but hopefully they’ll see a unity there between father and son, and that to me is the backstory that has never really come forward before. Not many people know just how connected Jeff was to his father, even though in interviews he tried to disassociate himself. You know – ‘Don’t try and put me in the same boat as Tim, I’m my own artist.’
“But I know that he knew his father’s music backwards and forwards, he loved it. So I want people to have a feel-good moment. [Like] they just saw a celebration of two phenomenal artists. That’s what we want.”
A State Of Grace: The Music Of Tim & Jeff Buckley withMartha Wainwright, Casper Clausen, Willy Mason, Camille O’Sullivan, Steve Kilbey and Cold Specks, takes place atEnmore Theatre onSunday September 27.
