Today marks the fifteenth anniversary of Jeff Buckley's tragic drowning in the Wolf River. The singer left a legacy of understated and massively influential recordings, a number of which are available in the gallery below.
Buckley, a session musician in the early 90's, made his public singing debut at a tribute concert for his late father. "Greetings From Tim Buckley" was the younger Buckley's first step into the music industry. In 1994, Buckley released his seminal album Grace. It featured three covers, one of them being his now-famous cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah."
A quiet man who shunned celebrity, Buckley spent two years touring in support of Grace, before recording what was to be his next album, My Sweetheart the Drunk.
It was never released as the singer-songwriter envisioned; In 1997, while re-recording a few tracks for the album, Buckley drowned after going for a swim, fully clothed, in Wolf River of Tennessee. His death was ruled an accidental drowning.
Subsequently, the recordings that did exist were released under the name Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk after Buckley's mother (and the sole heir of his estate), Mary Guiber, insisted that the album title include the word "sketches" because her son's work was not yet finished.
Currently, there are two Buckley biopics in the works. One, starring Reeve Carney as Buckley and Patricia Arquette as his mother, and another, titled "Greetings From Tim Buckley," starring Penn Badgley.
