Jeffrey Scott "Jeff" Buckley (November 17, 1966 – May 29, 1997), raised as Scott Moorhead, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. After a decade as a session guitarist in Los Angeles, Buckley amassed a following in the early 1990s by playing cover songs at venues in Manhattan's East Village, such as Sin-é, gradually focusing more on his own material. After rebuffing much interest from record labels and his father Tim Buckley's manager Herb Cohen, he signed with Columbia, recruited a band, and recorded what would be his only studio album, Grace, in 1994. In 2004, Rolling Stone listed him at number 39 on their list of greatest singers of all time.

Over the following three years, the band toured widely to promote the album, including concerts in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and Australia. In 1996, they stopped touring and made sporadic attempts to record Buckley's second album in New York City with Tom Verlaine as producer. In 1997, Buckley moved to Memphis, Tennessee, to resume work on the album, to be titled My Sweetheart the Drunk, recording many four-track demos while also playing weekly solo shows at a local venue. On May 29, 1997, while awaiting the arrival of his band from New York, he drowned during a spontaneous evening swim, fully clothed, in the Mississippi River when he was caught in the wake of a passing boat; his body was found on June 4.

Since his death, there have been many posthumous releases of his material, including a collection of four-track demos and studio recordings for his unfinished second album My Sweetheart the Drunk, expansions of Grace, and the Live at Sin-é EP. Chart success also came posthumously: with his cover of Leonard Cohen's song "Hallelujah" he attained his first number one on Billboard's Hot Digital Songs in March 2008 and reached number 2 in the UK Singles Chart that December. Buckley and his work remain popular and are regularly featured in "greatest" lists in the music press.

The Grace EPs is a boxset of Jeff Buckley recordings released in 2002. It contained five EPs, two of which, Peyote Radio Theatre and So Real, had previously been promotional only releases. Live from the Bataclan was released prior to this collection.

For someone who only put out one full-length album during his lifetime, Jeff Buckley managed to leave quite a trail of other material that came out on so  many other singles, EPs, and posthumous releases that only the most dedicated fan could keep track of them. This collection of five 1994-1996 EPs, packaged as five separate CDs (each with their own sleeve) in one case, doesn't quite pick up all the stray ends that don't appear on his other full-length releases. But it does contain five EPs that use his Grace album as the nominal touchstone, all of which are now collectable and sought-after as listeners strive for every scrap of Buckley's legacy. Indeed two of these (Peyote Radio Theatre and So Real, aka Live at Nighttown) were promotional-only releases that weren't commercially available. The others were imports: Last Goodbye came out in Japan, Live From the Bataclan in France, and The Grace EP in Australia. For collectors it's quite useful, and not skimpy (adding up to more than two hours even though there are just three to five songs on each disc), with liner notes from musicians in Buckley's band and Buckley's mother some icing on the cake. What of the music? It's kind of a supplement to the Grace album, as it contains live versions (sometimes more than one) of five songs from that record, as well as a few edit versions, a "Nag Champa Mix" of "Dream Brother," and a 13-minute live "Chocolate Version" of "Mojo Pin." These all do what live versions often do: give the artist a  chance to stretch out and indulge a bit, something probably welcomed by an overwrought singer such as Buckley. Perhaps more interesting to collectors will be a few cover tunes not on Grace: a whopping 12-minute version of Van Morrison's "The Way Young Lovers Do," a medley of "Je N'En Connais Pas la Fin/Hymne A l'Amour," Hank Williams's "Lost Highway," and a too-extended 14-minute take on Alex Chilton's "Kanga-Roo." And there is, finally, a bonus track added to the The Grace EP (the only song in the package not on the original EPs), "Tongue," a spooky ambient 11-minute studio instrumental. Although this release is good value, be aware that of the 19 tracks, one is the exact same version of "Mojo Pin" that appears on the Grace album; two are simply edits of the Grace versions of "Grace" and "Last Goodbye"; and the exact same version of "Kanga-Roo" is used on the Peyote Radio Theatre and Last Goodbye discs. - Richie Unterberger

This listing is for a very rare, out of print audiophile PROMO CD title - a USED / OPENED, in Near Mint minus overall condition PROMO CD PRESSED and ISSUED by COLUMBIA / SONY Records, of a highly collectible title, featuring -

Jeff Buckley

PROMO CD Title -

The Grace E.P. - 4 Track Sampler

Performers Include:

The PROMO CD is from the ultra-rare series of audiophile CDs made by COLUMBIA / SONY (Out of Print).

• PROMO CD catalog # 663085-2
  
• PROMO CD first issued in 1996
• PROMO CD made in the AUSTRALIA
  
• For promotional use only - not for sale

The PROMO CD, Outer CASE and INSERTS are all in near MINT minus overall condition. The CD has no serious marks on the reflective side of the disc. The jewel case shows just some light shelf wear. Inserts are clean and crisp. In top notch collectors grade condition.

This CD is an audiophile quality pressing (any collector of fine MFSL, half speeds, direct to discs, Japanese/UK pressings etc., can attest to the difference a quality pressing can make to an audio system).