A Touch of Grace 1.8.24.

​Happy Monday, all! This week marks the first major snowfall along the Northeast of 2024, but we were honored to check out the debut performance of Grace - Jeff Buckley Tribute on Sunday.

Held at the Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity (Florence, MA), the evening’s stellar performances were previewed by a curated selection of Elliot Smith and Nick Drake tunes over the house PA. This simple action introduced us to the fantastic acoustics of the Bombyx, as the venue’s past-life as a church lent itself well to natural reverberance and ghostly ambiance. Nonetheless, the house music perfectly dovetailed into James Bird’s opening set, drawing musical inspiration from quintessential folk-stylings and lyrical themes of classic Roman myths. Bird did an excellent job at setting the tone of the evening: A true sense of remembrance and reverence for the work of Jeff Buckley.

​Tasked with performance of Buckley’s seminal 1994 album, Grace, Grace - Jeff Buckley Tribute accomplished their ambitions with flying colors. Vocally and instrumentally, Grace is an album that requires extreme attention-to-detail and genuine care to do justice. While Buckley’s original cover of “Hallelujah” (originally written by Leonard Cohen) has inspired countless reinterpretations of the song, many of the tracks that comprise Grace have been left untouched since Buckley’s untimely passing in 1997. For drummer Jon Fisher, bassist Josh Hirst, lead guitarist Lucas Solórzano, and vocalist/rhythm guitarist Tony Bernardo, the absence of Grace in live music venues served as inspiration to start their band. Taking to the stage with a note-perfect rendition of “Mojo Pin”, the band’s dedication to honoring Buckley’s memory was evident.

As the band navigated their way through renditions of Grace classics (“Last Goodbye”, “So Real”, “Lover, You Should’ve Come Over”), the vocal prowess of Tony Bernardo consistently amazed via his confidence and connection to Buckley’s material. It could be considered easy to simply learn someone else’s material, but to tastefully impart oneself into another’s music is hard to do. Without question, Bernardo and Grace - Jeff Buckley Tribute possess the fluency and love of Buckley’s music necessary to provide an authentic live experience of Grace. We are honored to have caught their debut performance, though we patiently await the announcement of future dates!

Thank you to anyone who enjoyed last week’s coverage of Hum’s recent reissues and Fudge’s excellent album, The Ferocious Rhythms of Precise Laziness. More to come soon!