Dream Brother
Sufjan Stevens has contributed the track “She Is” to the upcoming Tim & Jeff Buckley tribute album titled Dream Brother: The Songs Of Tim & Jeff Buckley. “She Is” first appeared on Tim Buckley’s 1966 self-titled album. Full Time Hobby will release the album on October 3, 2005.
A Full Time Hobby staff member came up with the idea of creating a joint Tim & Jeff Buckley tribute album after reading the biography Dream Brother: The Lives and Music of Jeff and Tim Buckley. Listen to a sound clip of “She Is” David Browne, the author of Dream Brother, has contributed sleeve notes for the tribute CD. At this time the tribute will be a European release but may be released in other countries in the future. Order the CD from Amazon UK or Full Time Hobby.
Press release and information from Full Time Hobby:
Various Artists
Dream Brother - The Songs Of Tim & Jeff Buckley
Tim & Jeff Buckley covers compilation album
Released 3rd October 2005
It’s not often you get a compilation album that opens with an exclusive track from one of the most talked about bands of the moment (The Magic Numbers). It’s even rarer that you have an album of exclusively recorded tracks from the likes of Sufjan Stevens, The Earlies, Kathryn Williams, Micah P Hinson, Adem, and Matthew Herbert. But then when you realise these are cover versions of some of the best songs written by Tim and Jeff Buckley it feels like Christmas and your birthday all at once.
Tribute albums are supposed to be easy, undemanding - recess time for musicians. The formula, set in stone years ago, amounts to this: Select a revered icon, preferably cult; gather together singers and bands who have nothing but the highest regard for said icon; have the upstarts record faithful, don’t-mess-with-genius covers of random songs from the subject’s back catalogue. Presto - done. No wonder so many of these compilations take up so much space in record shops - and no wonder most of them are pointlessly redundant or, at times, just plain lazy.
Dream Brother, thankfully, is the exception to that unadventurous rule. Tim Buckley and his late son Jeff are now the stuff of rock mythology: masters of the octave-leaping voice, the almost uncategorizable blend of music, and the intense, sensitive-soul gaze. The debate over how much this father had in common with the son he left and barely knew will always rage, starting with their similarly untimely deaths (Tim at age 28, from a heroin-alcohol overdose in 1975; Jeff at age 30, of an accidental drowning in 1997). But there’s no denying the musical bond they shared: their dogged, relentless quest for artistic transcendence, their lack of interest in making anything easy on themselves or their audiences.
In that regard, Dream Brother is a model tribute. It’s clear that the British and American bands and singer-songwriters who’ve contributed to this unique, joint salute to the Buckleys love their music, but they’re happy (not sad) to shake things up as much as they can. Even loyal fans of either man (who include the likes of Rufus Wainwright, Starsailor, Elvis Costello, Badly Drawn Boy, and Norah Jones, among many) may have trouble recognizing some of their favorite songs here. Sufjan Stevens’ take on Tim’s chaste She Is fulfills the madrigal potential of the original; Matthew Herbert completely dismantles Jeff’s swampy song of devotion, Everybody Here Wants You, while the folk-tronica duo Tunng do the same with an eerie, junkyard-dog reworking of Tim and lyricist Larry Beckett’s Vietnam-era commentary No Man Can Find the War. In the hands of Engineers, Song to the Siren is now a sad march to the sea, less about agonizing about fate than about giving in. Interpretations of Jeff’s Mojo Pin and Grace, by King Creosote and Adem, respectively, treat the originals like well-worn folk ballads, bringing out unheard nuances.
In the way it honors the heritage of the Buckleys while seriously screwing with it, this album is a testament to the legacy Tim and Jeff left in their wake. Wherever they are, it would be nice to imagine the Buckleys listening to this collection, wondering why certain songs were chosen and others omitted, why certain tunes were rearranged certain ways?and reveling in the volatility of it all. They wouldn’t have had it any other way.
These are edited sleeve notes from David Browne, author of Dream Brother: The Lives and Music of Jeff and Tim Buckley who will be available for interview.
Tracklist:
- The Magic Numbers - Sing A Song For You
- Micah P. Hinson - Yard Of Blonde Girls
- Sufjan Stevens - She Is
- King Creosote - Grace
- The Earlies - I Must Have Been Blind
- Bitmap - Dream Brother
- Engineers - Song To The Siren
- Adem - Mojo Pin
- Tunng - No Man Can Find The War
- Stephen Fretwell - Morning Theft
- Kathryn Williams - Buzzin’ Fly
- Matthew Herbert & Dani Siciliano - Everybody Here Wants You
- Clayhill - The River
September 6th, 2005 admin
Entry Filed under: Compilations, Press Releases, Sound Clips