Jeff Buckley Lives On Via New Releases

09/07/1998 1:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

(9/7/98, 10 a.m. PDT) - More than a year after he drowned while swimming in the Mississippi River, Jeff Buckley continues to have a presence in popular music.

On Oct. 6, Mammoth Records will release the fourth album in its KCRW Rare On Air series, which compiles performances taped during KCRW Los Angeles's Morning Becomes Eclectic program. Sure to be one of the highlights is Buckley's live performance of "So Real," originally featured on his 1994 album Grace.

In addition to Buckley, the latest Rare On Air compilation will feature tracks by Radiohead, Sarah McLachlan, Ani DiFranco, Tom Waits, Joan Osborne, Mazzy Star, Soul Coughing, Zap Mama, Finn Brothers, Randy Newman, Ozomatli, Cafe Tacuba, Gus Gus and Marcy Playground.

Another new Buckley recording is featured on the soundtrack to First Love, Last Rites, which was released Aug. 25. Buckley sings "I Want You Badly" backed by Shudder To Think. Other vocalists who guest with Shudder To Think on the album include Liz Phair, Smashing Pumpkins head Billy Corgan, the Cardigans' Nina Persson and Cheap Trick's Robin Zander, among others.

In other Buckley-related news, fellow singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik pays tribute to his late friend in "A Body Goes Down," a song on Humming, his new Atlantic album, which is due Oct. 6. In the acoustic number, which features haunting strings, Sheik sings, "Once in awhile/ A man comes along/ Even his failures/ Were favorite songs."