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Beautiful, unreleased footage of Jeff Buckley performing in early days

The iconic 1994 Jeff Buckley album Grace has just turned 25, and in celebration, Columbia/Legacy Recordings have made available a bunch of recordings and footage.

Included in the release is previously unseen footage of Buckley performing Lover, You Should Have Come over, as well as a rare demo recording of Sky Blue Skin, and three albums of live recordings.

Jeff Buckley, Grace, 25th Anniversary, Columbia/Legacy Recordings, Lover You Should Have Come Over, Sky Blue Skin

25 years of Grace: Moving footage of Jeff Buckley performing Lover, You Should Have Come Over released, as well as rare demo and live recordings.

The live footage shows Buckley performing the seventh track off Grace at Middle East in Cambridge, Mass. Beginning with candid shots of Buckley walking down snow-laden New York streets, guitar in hand, the black and white footage cuts to shots of him sound checking on stage as a man stands next to him on a ladder adjusting the stage lights.

The performance is almost entirely shot from behind where Buckley is standing, giving a sense of intimacy and rawness, one only enhanced by Buckley’s performance, which grows in intensity as he nears the end of the song, the handheld camera zooming in on his expressive face.

Alongside the video, a rare demo recording of Sky Blue Skin from 1996 was also released, thought to be one of the last recordings Buckley made before his death.

And if this isn’t enough, three live sets, including a 1994 performance at Wetlands Club in Manhattan, a 1995 performance at Metro Chicago, and a Columbia Records Radio Hour performance at Sony Music Studios have all been released on streaming services, as well as an expanded digital reissues of Grace, the live album Mystery White Boy, and his posthumous second album Sketches for My Sweetheart The Drunk.

In a statement, Buckley’s mother Mary Guibert said of the releases:

“The music industry has made a couple of sea changes since Jeff departed the planet. I don’t know if he foresaw even a glimpse of the current state of affairs. Since all we have of his true remains is what’s in ‘the vault,’ I’m thrilled that we can finally fling open the doors of that vault and make as much as possible available to Jeff’s fans: the old ones and the new ones, and the ones who have not yet been born.”

Watch Jeff Buckley perform Lover, You Should Have Come Over and listen to the Sky Blue Skin demo below: