In Dialogue at Small Hours is series of intimate, live conversations with music lovers about records they cherish. Join us for this special edition as we welcome our friend Peter Pisano in for a chat with Sam about Jeff Buckley’s one and only studio album, “Grace”. Additionally, Peter will be performing songs from this iconic record throughout the event .

After moving from Los Angeles to New York City in 1991, Jeff Buckley built a sizable following by playing gigs at Sin-e, a tiny cafe on St. Marks Place, with crowds often spilling onto the street. Released in 1994, Grace was recorded in upstate New York after a major label bidding war and a fraught six months in the studio. Initially received with mixed critical reception. Buckley’s stunning vocal range and delivery along with his impressive guitar prowess and captivating stage presence have solidified this record over the years as one of the best of the 90’s. After years of heavy touring, Buckley tragically passed during an impromptu swim in the river the day his band was arriving to meet him in Memphis to start recording his second album. While there are plenty of live recordings and collections of his work that have been released posthumously, Grace remains his shining achievement and has only grown in stature as time has passed.

Peter Pisano is a songwriter and singer best known as the voice and guitarist of the indie folk duo Peter Wolf Crier. He released three albums on Jagjaguwar Records, appeared on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series, and had songs featured on shows including Shameless and Fear the Walking Dead, as well as on BBC Radio 6 Music. After years of recording and touring, he stepped away from music and moved to Toronto, where he taught college prep English. Since returning to the Twin Cities in 2016, he has co-founded Mafic Ocean, an artist-led spatial design studio that creates installations and environments, while also developing a new body of music shaped by folk songwriting, choral music, Gregorian chant, and Romantic poetry.

Grace is a bit of an outlier from what normally gets played in Small Hours. That said, it’s such an impressive and special piece of work with so much legend to dig into, it’s a great candidate for In Dialogue. Peter has recently put together a band to cover all of Grace, and it sounds incredible. Together we’ll explore what makes this record so impactful and time tested. Peter will play some of Jeff’s songs solo- a nod to Jeff’s early days at Sin-e- and we’ll talk a bit about Peter’s career as well and how Grace impacts his work. Price of admission includes a glass of wine and a reserved seat in the dining room during the chat.