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- Date Released: August 25, 2009
- Genre: Country/Folk
- Style: Folk Singer-Songwriter
- Label: Tompkins Square
A miraculous live document of the elder Buckley in his ineffable prime
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We Say...
There aren't a whole lot of certainties in pop music, but here's one: Any artist that dies tragically young — see Nick Drake, Kurt Cobain, even Sid Vicious — risks having his discography fully eclipsed by the circumstances of his demise. The myth overwhelms the music, the ramshackle posthumous releases begin, and every chord, grunt and whispered aside becomes heavy with foreshadowing. Tim Buckley died of a heroin overdose in 1975 at age 28, which alone would have been grounds for posthumous canonization: Add in that one of his most beloved albums, 1970's Starsailor, lingered out of-print for decades, and that his son, Jeff Buckley, drowned in the Wolf River after recording one stunning pop album, and Buckley seems oddly, miraculously primed for cult worship.
In 1967, Buckley performed at the Folklore Center in New York City, for about 35 people who paid $1.50 each to attend; Izzy Young, the founder of the center, recorded the performance to reel-to-reel tape, and now, over forty years later, that gig has finally been mastered and released. Live at the Folklore Center is a miraculous document, not just of Buckley's work — which is beautifully rendered here — but also of New York City in the late 1960s, when folk music was still an ideology and not yet an artifact. Buckley's acoustic guitar playing is fevered and earnest, and his voice — warbly, loud, elastic — is surprisingly rich. There are six previously unreleased and unavailable songs included in his set, which alone makes it worthwhile for Buckley fans, but his rendition of "I Never Asked to Be Your Mountain" — which he would later release on Goodbye and Hello, his second album, recorded just two months after this show — is enough to fully convert any newcomers. -
They Say...
It's mindblowing that the folk iconoclast Izzy Young, founder of New York CItry's legendary Folklore Center, sat on this reel to reel tape of a very young Tim Buckley on his first trip to the Big Apple from the West Coast, for more than 40 years. Young was a promoter and was as close to a folk music purist as there was, and an integral part of the City's scene in the '50s and early 60s. Buckley's performance at the center was the result of a long, informal conversation, some lox and bagels; it was scheduled without having heard his record or hearing him sing(!) and in the same month as concerts by Spider John Koerner and Ramblin' Jack Elliott. Buckley was hanging out in N.Y.C. between the release of his debut album and the impending issue of the now-classic Happy Sad. According to Young in his liner essay, there were about 35 people in the audience. Along with the essay, there is a verbatim transcript of an interview between him and Buckley without the questions. What transpires here (released through the visionary good graces of Tompkins Square Recordings) is the sound of Buckley emerging from the influence of the New York scene's sound and into the enigmatic one he would call his own. The performance here is electrifying. Buckley is picking his six-string guitar with as much passion as his singing (the opener is an incredible version of "Song for Janie"), and on other songs, he's beating the living hell out of his open-tuned, 12-string guitar to match (check "I Never Asked to Be Your Mountain"). Other well-known Buckley numbers are performed here and, as many times as we've heard them, sound completely fresh and new -- because they were new to him. There's the brief reading of "Phantasmagoria in Two," an excellent version of Fred Neil's "Dolphins," the wooly exuberance "Aren't You the Girl," (though it is sometimes off-key and even shrill) and the honest tenderness and vulnerability on display in "Carnival Song." And while this set is comprised of unreleased live material, the real treasure trove is that contains a whopping six songs -- all composed by Buckley -- that have never been issued before in any form. There is the uptempo "Please Just Leave Me"; the consolation ballad "What Do You Do (He Never Saw You)"; the broken love song "Cripples Cry"; the seductive ballad that is "If the Rain Comes"; the raucous "Country Boy," and the concluding pathos-fueled manic strum and thrum that is "I Can't Leave You Lovin' Me," with its killer falsetto in the refrain that leaves the audience clapping enthusiastically. The final effect of this set is electrifying because of its raw, unfiltered, and even spontaneous performance. The sound quality and fidelity are fine since this was recorded on a single 1/4-inch tape recorder with a single mike; so guitar and voice are naturally balanced by the performer; add to this the natural warmth of the room. This is all evident in the ambience of the CD with very little tape hiss, miraculously. This surprise document is early proof of Buckley's genius at such a young age, and in a live setting, even without a producer. He could offer a completely new twist on what was considered "folk music" at the time, to a very conservative and tough audience, and burn down the house. This is simply a must for fans.
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| 01. |  |
Song For Jainie |
3:02 |
|
| 02. | |
I Never Asked To Be Your Mountain |
4:17 |
|
| 03. | |
Wings |
2:44 |
|
| 04. | |
Phantasmagoria In Two |
3:18 |
|
| 05. | |
Just Please Leave Me |
2:28 |
|
| 06. | |
Dolphins |
4:32 |
|
| 07. | |
I Can't See You |
4:05 |
|
| 08. | |
Troubador |
4:31 |
|
| 09. | |
Aren't You The Girl |
2:57 |
|
| 10. | |
What Do You Do (He Never Saw You) |
2:51 |
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| 11. | |
No Man Can Find The War |
3:19 |
|
| 12. | |
Carnival Song |
2:43 |
|
| 13. | |
Cripples Cry |
5:08 |
|
| 14. | |
If The Rain Comes |
2:51 |
|
| 15. | |
Country Boy |
4:04 |
|
| 16. | |
I Can't Leave You Loving Me |
2:26 |
|
16 Total Tracks, 55:16 Total Length
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Credits
- Josh Rosenthal - Producer // Warren Russell-Smith - Photography // Nurit Wilde - Photography // Julie Marr - Photography // Izzy Young - Engineer // Izzy Young - Liner Notes // Izzy Young - Photography // David Gahr - Photography
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