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Jeffreys is from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. He majored in art history at Syracuse University where he met Lou Reed, before The Velvet Underground became active. In 1966, Jeffreys began to play in Manhattan nightclubs including Gerde’s Folk City, The Bitter End, Gaslight, Kenny’s Castaways and later Reno Sweeney, where he began to explore racially conscious themes in his work, sometimes utilizing blackface masks and a rag doll named Ramon in performance. Jeffreys played guitar on John Cale’s 1969 debut solo album Vintage Violence and contributed the song “Fairweather Friend”. In 1969 he founded Grinder’s Switch with Woodstock-area musicians including pianist Stan Szelest, guitarist Ernie Corallo, and percussionist Sandy Konikoff. Lew Merenstein produced this one album before the band dissolved in 1970.

In 1973, he released his first solo album, Garland Jeffreys, on Atlantic Records. Around the same time Atlantic also released a single, “Wild in the Streets”, that was not included on the album. Jeffreys wrote the song after hearing about a pre-teen rape and murder in the Bronx. Dr. John played clavinet and helped arranged the song, with backing from guitarist David Spinozza, drummer Rick Marotta, the Brecker Brothers on horns and David Peel on background vocals. The track received airplay on the progressive FM album-oriented rock stations, and has become one of his best-known songs.
“Wild in the Streets” has become something of an unofficial anthem for the skate community and been covered covered by several musicians, including:

The Circle Jerks, on their album Wild in the Streets
Chris Spedding, on the album Hurt
British Lions, on their album British Lions
Hot Water Music, on the album Til the Wheels Fall Off

In 1977 Garland recorded his Ghost Writer album for A&M Records, with “Wild in the Streets” included on side two. Every track on Ghost Writer is beautifully crafted, making the whole album one of the most consistently satisfying works of the entire era. All are autobiographical, encompassing bittersweet tales about coming of age as an artist in the big city (“Ghost Writer”), of racial separatism (“Why-O”), of interracial romance (“I May Not Be Your Kind”), and of overcoming conflict at home (“Cool Down Boy”).
Musically, the album traverses strident, yet soulful rock ‘n’ roll (“Rough and Ready”, “Wild in the Streets,” “Lift Me Up,” “35 Millimeter Dreams”), reggae (“I May Not Be Your Kind,” “Why-O,” “Ghost Writer”) and more up-tempo reggae (“Cool Down Boy”) to jazz-inflected ballad (“New York Skyline”). Among the players on the record, one key contributor was Winston Grennan – veteran drummer with the Skatalites, early Wailers, Toots and the Maytals and “The Harder They Come” soundtrack – who gave the reggae tracks their unique pulse.

The final track, “Spanish Town,” is Garland’s grand epic, a sweeping, atmospheric narrative which juxtaposes recollections of his grandmother Rafaella, father Ray, friend Don Juan and sweetheart Margarita with mention of “revolution in the streets.” It remains a fan favorite. Other contributors to the record are James Taylor (background vocals) and Al Cohn and David Sanborn (sax). Jeffreys was voted best new artist of 1977 by Rolling Stone.

The next years saw a string of albums, five within five years, and released the perennial radio favorite “Matador” which charted in the top five of a number of European countries.  This burst of productivity culminated with the criminally underrated Guts for Love, a meditation on the challenges of monogamy and fidelity.  After a long hiatus, much of it spend woodshedding, reading and researching, Jeffreys released Don’t Call Me Buckwheat, devoted to the complexities of race in America.  The title was triggered by an incident at Shea Stadium where Jeffreys was enjoying the game and feeling carefree.  He stood to go get a hotdog when a voice shouted “Hey buckwheat, sit down!”  The casual epithet was a jolt and it spurred a number of memorable songs including “Don’t Call Me Buckwheat, ” “I Was Afraid of Malcolm,” “Racial Repertoire.”  In February 1992, Jeffreys’ “Hail Hail Rock ‘n’ Roll” spent one week at #72 in the UK Singles Chart.

Jeffreys was featured in the 2003 documentary The Soul of a Man, directed by Wim Wenders as the fourth installment of the documentary film series The Blues produced by Martin Scorsese. The film explored the musical careers of blues musicians Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson and J. B. Lenoir. Jeffreys was also featured on the cover of Beyond Race Magazine in February 2007.

Jeffreys newly released album in 2012 called “The King of in Between” is available now!

Quotes:

If there’s a better record this year, I haven’t heard it. Garland Jeffreys, who I once saw open for the Rolling Stones, is an old-school rocker with a timeless mind. His new album is an urban poet’s masterpiece.
– Steve Morse

This record is as good a classic roots rock record as you’re going to hear from anybody this year. And I don’t care if Bruce Springsteen puts out a record this year; I’m standing by my statement.
– Ann Powers, NPR “All Songs Considered,” The Year’s Best Music (So Far)

He beats the odds by surpassing 1973′s Garland Jeffreys, 1977′s Ghost Writer, and all their lesser successors.
– Robert Christgau, MSN Music

If you aren’t familiar with his music, well, the best compliment I can pay Jeffreys is to say that his newest album is as good an introduction to his excellence as the superb album that put him on the map, 1977′s “Ghost Writer.” There are quite a few mentions of mortality scattered throughout his new collection. In one song, Jeffreys says he doesn’t want to die onstage with a microphone in his hand, but he makes it sound as though it might be a beautiful way to go. In every respect, he’s not just artfully ambivalent; he’s the king of in-between.
– Ken Tucker, NPR “Fresh Air”

The material is as uncannily fresh and forceful as the songs on his début record, from 1973.
- The New Yorker

Even as the rides shut down, this New York rocker, returning from too long in exile, makes Coney’s magic live.
–USA Today

This is easily one of the five best, most moving, textured, and deep albums of guitar band rock I have heard in this century.
– Danny Duncan Collum, U.S. Catholic

Ultimately what makes The King of In Between stand out is that Jeffreys takes on a host of heavy duty topics, from the current climate of the United States to mortality, mixes them up with his life story, his love affair with music, his love affair with New York, his love for his family, and combines and entwines them in such away that the dominant message of the album is not despair or fear, but life.
– Muddy Water

Jeffreys proves that he remains a singer-songwriter of extraordinary soul and grace with King of In Between, a powerful song cycle artfully co-produced by Larry Campbell that finds Jeffreys sizing up the modern skyline on standout tracks like “Coney Island Winter,” “I’m Alive” and “The Contortionist,” which features some backing vocals by another enduring New York man, Lou Reed. Whether you know it or not, Garland Jeffreys is musical royalty, so all hail The King of In Between.
– David Wild, Huffington Post

Jeffreys cut his teeth in New York City, and has been perfecting a vibrant blend of R&B, reggae, rock, blues and soul for some 40 years. His latest album, “The King Of In-Between,” has received glowing notices, which is not surprising – throughout the collection, Jeffreys comes across with the force and passion of a man half his age.
– Buffalo News