There's evidence that Jeff Buckley's distinctive quaver -- now posthumously claimed by 4,317 abrasively cloying singers -- may have belonged to Texas songwriter David Garza first. Check the chronology: Garza's first band, Twang Twang Shaka Boom (a name that still serves as an onomatopoeic representation of his sound) debuted in 1989; Buckley's Live in Sin-e wasn't a landmark until four years later. Garza's sense of melody, his ability to coin phrases that linger for years, and his overall willingness to sing his guts out, no matter what kind of music he's tackling, mean that if all those singers aren't imitation Garza, they should be -- and they could all claim to have discovered him first.
