The Jeff Buckley estate will reissue Grace for the 1994 album’s 25th anniversary as well as a massive digital expansion of the late artist’s catalogue, set for release on August 23rd.
More than 50 tracks will be digitally released, including the rare “Sky Blue Skin” demo, one of the last songs Buckley recorded before his untimely death in 1997. Four live concerts will also be released — Live at Wetlands, New York NY 8/16/94, Live From Seattle, WA, May 7, 1995, Cabaret Metro, Chicago, IL, May 13, 1995 and Live at Columbia Records Radio Hour, the latter being released for the first time in its entirety.
Although Grace was reissued for the debut’s 10th anniversary in 2004, this new edition includes a bonus track of “Strawberry Street,” written by Buckley in the late 1980s. The albums Sketches for my Sweetheart of the Drunk, produced by Television’s Tom Verlaine, and the live album Mystery White Boy will also be rereleased with bonus tracks.
“The music industry has made a couple of sea changes since Jeff departed the planet,” Buckley’s mother Mary Guibert said in a statement. “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.”
Grace will be celebrated with an entire new line of merchandise, as well as a blue vinyl pressing of the album via Newbury Comics. A collection of Buckley’s journals, lyrics and ephemera will be published on October 15th via Da Capo Press. Titled Jeff Buckley: His Own Voice, the book was co-edited by Guibert and Rolling Stone senior writer David Browne — who wrote one of the first profiles of Buckley in the New York Times in 1993.