Expanded look at Buckley’s 1969 stand at L.A.’s Troubadour
The early years of Buckley’s performing career are surprisingly well documented in posthumous releases, including a set at New York City’s Folklore Center in 1967, a London set from 1968, and a gig at Los Angeles’ Troubadour from 1969. Manifesto Records expands greatly on the latter with two new releases that dig through an extended cache of materials from the three days of shows at the Troubadour. Issued as a double-LP (and single-CD) as Greetings From West Hollywood and a double-CD as Venice Mating Call, the new materials provide songs that had yet to be released commercially, and performances that have never been released before. The song lists overlap most of Live at the Troubador 1969, but often provide radically different improvisations. And for the Buckley completists, the LP and CD editions, though also overlapping in song titles, largely offer performances unique to each volume. This is a great opportunity not only to hear Buckley in an artistically experimental period, but to hear how that experimentation manifested itself in performance on stage. Buckley sings and guides the band with exploratory freedom, turning the performances into deeply personal, in-the-moment expressions. The double CD, house in a tri-fold slipcase with a 20-page booklet, provides a valuable addition to Buckley’s live catalog. [©2017 Hyperbolium] 