Grace (1994)

Grace is the only studio album by the American singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley, released in the UK and Europe on August 15, 1994 and in the US on August 23, 1994 by Columbia Records. It was produced by Buckley and Andy Wallace.

After moving from Los Angeles to New York City in 1991, Buckley amassed a following through his performances at Sin-é, a cafe in the East Village, and signed to Columbia in 1993. He recorded Grace primarily in Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, New York, with musicians including Gary Lucas, Mick Grondahl, Michael Tighe and Matt Johnson. It includes cover versions of the jazz standard "Lilac Wine", the hymn "Corpus Christi Carol", and the 1984 Leonard Cohen song "Hallelujah".

Grace reached number 149 on the US Billboard 200, below Columbia's expectations, and initially received mixed reviews. After Buckley's death in 1997, its critical standing grew and it was praised by musicians including Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Bob Dylan and David Bowie. By 2011, it had sold two million copies worldwide, and in 2016 it was certified platinum in the US.

Rolling Stone included Grace in its lists of the 500 greatest albums and named "Grace" and Buckley's version of "Hallelujah" in its lists of the 500 greatest songs. In 2008, "Hallelujah" became Buckley's first number one on Billboard's Hot Digital Songs and reached number two in the UK singles chart. In 2014, "Hallelujah" was inducted into the American Library of Congress' National Recording Registry.

Background

Buckley moved from Los Angeles to New York City in 1991, where he met the guitarist Gary Lucas and wrote the songs "Grace" and "Mojo Pin" with him. He performed both songs during his brief time as a member of Lucas's band Gods and Monsters.

After leaving the band, Buckley performed regularly at Sin-é, a cafe in the East Village, Manhattan. He built a following and attracted attention from major record labels. In October 1992, Buckley signed a record contract with Columbia Records. His debut EP, Live at Sin-é, was released in 1993. According to Rolling Stone, the EP was designed to "shrewdly market a hot new performer's street cred".

Buckley assembled a band and delayed recording his debut album until he felt he had found the right musicians. He met the bassist Mick Grondahl at a concert at Columbia University, and recruited him following a jam session at Buckley's apartment. Buckley's girlfriend, Rebecca Moore, introduced him to the drummer Matt Johnson, and Buckley invited him to audition at a rehearsal, where they created the structure for "Dream Brother". The band began recording Grace soon after. Johnson said it was "really scary" to go from meeting someone to recording so quickly.

Recording

Grace was produced, engineered and mixed by Andy Wallace and recorded in Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, New York. Buckley experimented extensively with arrangements and recording techniques. He found the recording process contrary to his improvisational performance style, and said later: "It's not like a live show where you play it and it just disappears into the air like smoke. It's like painting, sound painting. It's in a crystalized form, so it's very nerve-wracking: which brain cell do I put down here forever and ever?" Karl Berger, a longtime Woodstock resident, wrote the string arrangements with Buckley and conducted the orchestra for recording sessions.

Wallace recalled Buckley as among the most talented musicians he had met, with an abundance of ideas. However, he was "very scattered", had difficulty focusing and required direction. Recording was disrupted by a negative review of Live at Sin-é in Newsday, which likened his voice to Michael Bolton and wrote that he was derivative of "black idioms ... awkwardly reach[ing] for a balance of emotion and technique, eventually relying on sheer voice of will, oversinging, flaking out". Wallace said Buckley was "almost apoplectic" about the criticism and stopped work for two days.

Lucas contributed guitar to the songs he co-wrote, "Grace" and "Mojo Pin". As Buckley had not completed enough original songs for an album, he recorded three covers: the jazz standard "Lilac Wine", originally by James Shelton; the hymn "Corpus Christi Carol", based on an arrangement by Benjamin Britten; and the 1984 Leonard Cohen song "Hallelujah", based on the cover by John Cale. Buckley recorded more than 20 takes of "Hallelujah", with the final version edited together from several recordings.