Description: The power and influence of Grace increases with each passing year. Here, Daphne Brooks traces Jeff Buckleys fascinating musical development through the earliest stages of his career, up to the release of the album. With access to rare archival material, Brooks illustrates Buckleys passion for life and hunger for musical knowledge, and shows just why he was such a crucial figure in the American music scene of the 1990s.
Brief description: Daphne A. Brooks is Associate Professor in the Department of English and the Center for African-American Studies at Princeton University where she teaches courses on African-American literature and culture, performance studies, critical gender studies, and popular music culture. She is the author of Bodies in Dissent: Spectacular Performances of Race and Freedom, 1850-1910 (Duke University Press, 2006).
Review Quotes:
"Such inspiration is seen in Brooks' current book project, 'Jeff Buckley's Grace, '... The book will examine the legacy of the singer-guitarist, who only released one full-length studio album but had amassed a cult following before he drowned at the age of 30." --Eric Quinones, Princeton Weekly Bulletin
"...Daphne Brooks reveals and obsession- so intense it'll make you blanche- with the late Jeff Buckley." --Philadelphia Weekly "I had been waiting and looking for this sound all of my own life, ' writes Daphne Brooks in the introduction to her book on Jeff Buckley's debut album. She writes about nursing an intense emotional connection to Grace, which she admits is 'the most unlikely muse for my American black girl experience.' That is, however, not her conclusion, but a starting point for the book that tries to ascertain the nature of that bond ... She delves deep enough to find new perspectives on the music, but fortunately not so deep that she dissolves the strange power of this mystery white boy." --Stephen M. Deusner, Pitchfork