In '96 author, lyricist, and EMMY-award winning producer Joe Tripician wrote and recorded a song with Jeff Buckley. Joe's musical partner Frederick Reed co-wrote the song and recorded the studio session, and this single song was released for free online in '97. It truly exhibits Jeff's legendary humor and playfulness, and Rolling Stone soon published a story in '98 on "Ozark Melody”. Fred and Jeff became friends when Jeff played at Fez in New York City, where Fred was the house engineer. Jeff had an open invitation to visit Fred's NYC studio, which at the time was housed in Joe's west-side apartment. It was during the late summer/early fall of '96 that Jeff visited the studio where Joe spoke to him about a humor book he wrote, which was published in '97 by Andrews & McMeel. Jeff got a kick out of the book, called "The Official Alien Abductee's Handbook", and started to strum on Fred's mandolin, singing in a hillbilly voice one short phrase: "Oh, the aliens are coming…" Joe was inspired by Jeff's infectious sense of humor and musical talent and began writing lyrics. Within four hours Jeff and Fred wrote the music, Joe supplied the lyrics, and the three recorded the song, singing together.
AOL Music/Spinner.com recently interviewed Joe and Fred about "Ozark Melody" and are now providing a free download of the song – released MONDAY, JULY 12th!! Click here to read the interview and download the song for free! You can also hear the unmixed tracks at Indaba Music and listen to the podcast feed, "Remembering Jeff Buckley," right here!