Garland Jeffreys: The King of in Between
Claire Jeffreys
Thursday 30.10
6:00 pm
“He is in the great singer-songwriter tradition of Dylan and Neil Young. He’s just one of the America greats” – Bruce Springsteen.
Directed by Claire Jeffreys, this award-winning documentary examines the fifty-year career of the genre-bending, biracial singer-songwriter Garland Jeffreys.
Garland Jeffreys occupies a unique space in American music history, blending rock, reggae, R&B, and soul into a sound that defied easy categorization. Emerging from New York City in the late 1960s and early 1970s in a time of immense cultural and political upheaval, Jeffreys crafted music that spoke to issues of race, identity, and social justice with an urgency that remains relevant today.​
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Named the Most Promising Artist of the Year in by Rolling Stone Magazine in 1977, Garland sang of cultural change, seeing the world the way it really is. As Bob Marley said, “Garland Jeffreys was one of the few people to get it right”.
His songs and lyrics reflected the challenges he faced in an America in racial turmoil – “I had to meet you on the corner, just because of the color of my skin”. As Garland reflects with a smile, “That is what it was, I had to meet her by the corner, I couldn’t meet her near the house”.
His songwriting and performances were balanced by a positivity that said one should never give up – “You can be everything, anything you really want to be” (credit Garland Jeffreys song “The Answer” from the album “Don’t Call Me Buckwheat”).
This documentary keeps alive the legacy of a most compelling artist who may have never have truly reached stardom but is content with what he has achieved. As wife and filmmaker Claire Jeffreys says, “As we got older and time went on, I don’t think he needed the validation”.
Experience this honest and compelling documentary which, according to Billboard Magazine, “…confirms Garland Jeffreys’ legacy as one of the American greats”.
