New Jeff Buckley album released, 20 years after death

Nearly two decades after his death, an album out this month offers a new look at musician Jeff Buckley.

There have been 10 new Buckley albums since his tragic death, but this latest one -- "You and I" -- which includes his earliest recordings, are part of an unfolding legacy, turning this once underground songwriter into one of the most recognizable voices in music, reports CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason.

With a haunting voice and boyish looks, the singer seemed poised for stardom.

"He was the most extraordinarily kind, compassionate person I've ever met in my life," said his mother, Mary Guibert. "In the beginning, his songs were very experimental. He hadn't quite gotten song structure. Every time he with a new tape, he got exponentially better."

Buckley was 25 when he moved to New York in 1991 and became a regular performer in the city's underground clubs. A year later, he signed with Columbia Records.

"They weren't quite sure how to present this young man," Guibert said. "Because everybody was listening to Hootie and the Blowish and Nirvana, and so they thought, 'Well let's just get him into a studio, a really good studio.'"

So Buckley went to New York's Shelter Island Sound, where he worked with engineer Steve Addabbo and producer Steve Berkowitz. Over three days, they recorded six hours of tape.

"This is chapter one. This is the first concrete step past playing the clubs in the village," Berkowitz said.

Some tracks were impulsive covers, and others, early versions of original songs.

"I don't remember things I did three weeks ago but from 23 years I remember the sight of him throwing his head back, closing his eyes and just like, the sound would come out," Addabbo said. "That doesn't come into your studio very often."

Just four years later, Buckley drowned in the Mississippi River. He had only released one album.

The Shelter Island sessions sat on shelves for 23 years until recently, when Columbia Records and Buckley's mother decided they should be released exactly as they were recorded.

"We want there to be a demand for Jeff's work. That's sort of part of the circle of life in the music business," Guibert said.

"He had that musical history in his bones, that he could have gone anywhere and that's also what's so tragic," said Daphen Brooks, a Yale professor who wrote a book about Buckley's legacy. "From Kurt Cobain to Jimmy Hendrix, there are these questions around what we should release why, how and when. Art should be used, but it should be used ethically."

Buckley continues to influence an array of artists. Radiohead's Thom Yorke was struggling to record their hit song, "Fake Plastic Trees," until he says he was inspired at a Buckley's concert. Grammy winners John Legend and Adele have also said they were inspired by Buckley's voice.

"To me, that this is coming out and its getting attention and young people are hearing this, it's like yeah, see? People can be artists just by walking in a room," Addabo said. "All you need is a guy and a guitar. and just to see that he could do that, with that little bit, is inspirational to me still, 23 years later."