Amazing Grace from Katie Noonan and her Sydney Festival Jeff Buckley show

The 30th anniversary of Jeff Buckley’s landmark Grace album was celebrated by star singer Katie Noonan and her crack band.

Katie Noonan performing Jeff Buckley’s Grace album for Sydney Festival. Picture: Neil Bennett

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Thirty years ago an album made by an unknown former LA session guitarist was being loaded on to Sony Discmans and hi-fi sets in fairly modest numbers around the globe. Within two years Jeff Buckley was dead, sales of the album Grace skyrocketed and the music world realised what a spectacular talent had just passed by like a brilliant comet.

Known if for nothing else for its angelic cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, the record went on to be named among Rolling Stone’s 500 greatest of all time and influenced countless musicians with its heady mixture of Indie rock, electric folk and hints of lounge jazz, cabaret and even a nod to a great classical composer.

His voice, pure and liquid, was inherited from his father Tim Buckley, a folk rock legend from the psychedelic 1960s and ’70s, whom he only ever met once as a boy and who died at the age of 28. Jeff only made it to 30, when he drowned swimming in the Mississippi.

When it came to recreating the Grace 11-song track list for Sydney Festival, Brisbane’s five-time ARIA-winning singer Katie Noonan was the obvious choice with her crack band which included Thirsty Merc’s Matthew Smith sharing guitar duties with Brandon Mamata, violinist Sarah King, bassist Steele Chabau and Noonan’s 19-year-old son Dexter Hurren on drums.

From the spacious falsetto vocalise of the opening of Mojo Pin over a gently rocking guitar, breaking out into the wild and edgy middle section, it was clear that this 70-minute show on the stage of the Wharf Theatre was going to be electrifying.

Katie Noonan with her band celebrating Jeff Buckley's Grace album. Picture: Neil Bennett

Noonan, whose radiant soprano paid tribute to the 50th anniversary of Joni Mitchell’s groundbreaking album Blue two Sydney Festivals ago, peppered her searing performances with anecdotes and witty remarks. After the explosive climax to the title track with its refrain “Wait in the fire, wait in the fire” she joked: “Holy crap! Thank God that’s over.”

Brilliantly performed as the rockier numbers were – the band capturing the diverse arrangements, colours and moods with uncanny accuracy – it’s with the three ballads on the album that Noonan wove her potent magic.

James Shelton’s Lilac Wine, recorded by Eartha Kitt and Nina Simone among others, showcased her exquisitely shaped lines and ear for text. Hallelujah, with Mamata picking out the spare guitar accompaniment, was a pin-dropping moment, dispelled by a majestic version of Lover, You Should Have Come Over, with Noonan at the synthesiser and King’s violin and vocals weaving over the top.

Noonan describes Grace as “the single biggest influence on my musical journey”. She first heard it in the early 2000s travelling in a car with her brother Tyrone to a gig for their band George. Benjamin Britten, on the other hand, she first heard “in utero” when her mother, operatic soprano Maggie, would sing arias from Peter Grimes.

Buckley featured his arrangement of Corpus Christi Carol on his album, the soaring choirboy falsetto a standout track.

“I’m so glad that he introduced my favourite composer to so many new people,” Noonan said.

After the closing song Forget Her brought the show to a suitably theatrical close, Noonan quipped that the next event of the night was the Siegfried and Roy opera about the glitzy Las Vegas magicians – “which makes perfect sense! Jeff would have loved that!”

SYDNEY FESTIVAL

• CONCERT Katie Noonan: Jeff Buckley’s Grace

• WHERE Wharf 1 Theatre

• WHEN January 21, 2025