The world didn’t get enough of Jeff Buckley, as a stream of unfinished work, outtakes and unearthed live sessions attests. 1994’s Grace, released three years before Buckley’s untimely death by drowning in the Mississippi River, remains the one complete musical statement by this obscenely talented New York scenester and his great band. On it, Buckley owns for all time Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” (igniting an appreciation of the Canadian Bard amongst generations who might have otherwise have been oblivious, so don’t feel too bad for Leonard). Buckley’s proggy, dreamy and stormy originals, such as “Mojo Pin,” the title track, “So Real” and the exquisite album-closing “Dream Brother,” have become unlikely standards in their own right, and the playing of the lustrous, dynamic, powerful band had an immediate influence on the sound and sensibility of Radiohead and subsequently on generations of art-rockers and highly emotive vocalists. The influence of Grace cannot be overestimated.
Enter ETHEL, the pioneering post-classical string quartet that makes its first appearance in Hudson at the Hudson Opera House as part of the Classics on Hudson’s inaugural season on Saturday, November 22 at 7 p.m. Often referred to as the “string quartet that sometimes thinks it’s a rock band,” ETHEL performs a program titled “Grace,” honoring the 20th anniversary of the release of the Jeff Buckley’s only completed album, recorded at Bearsville Studios with string arrangements by Woodstock’s own Karl Berger.
Tickets cost $25 general admission, $22 for members. The Hudson Opera House is located at 327 Warren Street in Hudson. For further information and tickets, visit www.hudsonoperahouse.org or call (518) 822-1438.
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