Jeff Buckley's 'You and I' First Studio Sessions to Release in 2016

Columbia/Legacy Recordings, will release You and I, the very first studio recordings made by Jeff Buckley for Columbia Records.

These 10 tracks (most of them cut in Steve Addabbo's Shelter Island Sound studio in February 1993) have gone virtually unheard for more than two decades.

Recently discovered in the Sony Music archives during the research for the 20th anniversary edition of Buckley's Grace album, the performances on You and I are a revelation, an intimate portrait of the artist performing a variety of cover songs and original music expressing a range of emotion channeled through his singular sensibility.

Buckley's recording of "Everyday People" will also be made available for Record Store Day as a limited edition 7" with the B-side featuring the original recording by Sly & the Family Stone.

The songs on You and I reveal, in part, the eclectic scope of Jeff Buckley's extraordinary musical tastes and talent.

The covers on the album include Jeff's highly personal interpretations of songs written by Bob Dylan ("Just Like a Woman"); Sylvester Stewart ("Everyday People," recorded by Sly & the Family Stone); Joe Green ("Don't Let the Sun Catch You Cryin'," recorded by Louis Jordan, Ray Charles and others); Bob Telson ("Calling You," recorded by Jevetta Steele for the 1987 film Bagdad Cafe); Morrissey and Johnny Marr ("The Boy with the Thorn in His Side" and "I Know It's Over," recorded by the Smiths); Booker T. Washington "Bukka" White ("Poor Boy Long Way from Home," from a 1939 "field" recording made by John Lomax) and John Paul Jones/Jimmy Page/Robert Plant ("Night Flight," recorded by Led Zeppelin).

"Any time I take a cover and wear it on my sleeve, it's because it had something to do with my life and still marks a time in my life when I needed that song more than anything ever." said Buckley in a Plane Truth fanzine interview from 1994.

Rounding out You and I are two pieces of original music: the first-ever studio recording of his signature song, "Grace" and "Dream of You and I," a mysterious and haunting piece which informs the deeply intimate and profoundly personal mood of the album.

Long rumored to exist, but previously unheard outside the studio, the performances on You and I have never been bootlegged or released to the public in any form.

Born November 17, 1966, Jeff Buckley worked for several years as a session guitarist in Los Angeles.

Moving to New York City in the early 1990s, he gathered a rabid following playing tiny venues, notably Sin-e in the East Village. His repertoire incorporated folk, rock, R&B, blues and jazz.

Buckley's extraordinary live shows launched one of the fiercest bidding wars of the 1990s before the artist decided to sign with Columbia Records in October 1992. In February 1993, he went into the studio to lay down the newly uncovered tracks on You and I, which includes a never-before-heard original composition and studio versions of his Sin-e repertoire.

Opting for the opportunity to capture Jeff's live performance magic, the focus pivoted from these experimental tracks to the Live At Sin-e recording sessions.

Buckley only completed one studio album, 1994's Grace, before his life and career ended tragically with his accidental drowning in Memphis on May 29, 1997.

The newly discovered studio recordings on You and I represent an essential addition to the discography of one of the great American musical artists of the 20th century, a significant look into the creative process of a developing genius.

The Columbia/Legacy release of Jeff Buckley's You and I has been overseen by the artist's mother, Mary Guibert and is set to release on March 11, 2016.

You and I Tracklist:
1. Just Like A Woman (Bob Dylan cover)
2. Everyday People (Sly & The Family Stone cover)
3. Don't Let The Sun Catch You Cryin' (First recorded by Louis Jordan)
4. Grace (original)
5.

Calling You (Jevetta Steele cover)
6. Dream Of You And I (original)
7. The Boy With The Thorn In His Side (The Smiths cover)
8.

Poor Boy Long Way From Home (traditional blues song, Bukka White cover)
9. Night Flight (Led Zeppelin cover)
10. I Know It's Over (The Smiths cover)