Tim Buckley - Live At the Troubadour

The posthumously released Live At The Troubadour 1969 is the second of a trio of well-produced live albums (alongside 1968's Dream Letter-Live At London's Queen Elizabeth Hall and 1973s Honeyman) to be unearthed and packaged to feed Tim Buckley myth. One of the greatest rock voices ever, Tim Buckley drew from folk, psychedelic rock and progressive jazz.

His multi-octave range was capable of powerful expressiveness and his restless evasion of any kind of self-definition always cast him as an outsider talent, a maverick. By the time of the Troubadour set, Buckley's improvisational technique was sensual, feverish and utterly unique.

 The music, mostly taken from 1970s Lorca and Blue Afternoon albums ekes out the kind of truly blitzed existential avant-garde blues you get from Buckley on a good day but it's the twists and turns of that "voice" that really startles.

Whether ripping up the hood of the tender "Strange Feelin'", stretching, cajoling and scatting "I Don't Need It To Rain", prowling around the notes of "Nobody Walkin", Buckley's soul-soothing, vocal gymnastics are always perfect for an exploration of your imagination. Supported by a band willing to drift into moody epic plateaus, Buckley delivers a righteous fusion of lazy rhythms, junk-waffle jazz and soul with gutsy depth of emotion and empathy. --Reuben Dessay