Damien Jurado burst out of the Seattle scene and into the Indie spotlight a dozen years ago. The transplanted Texan began by self-releasing his own basement Folk cassettes — a little like Nick Drake shaped by faith and contemporary forces — which earned him a loyal local audience.
Since then, Jurado has pushed his stylistic envelope in several new directions. While retaining his basic songwriting premise of crafting darkly engaging (and fictional) story-songs with a first person narrative, Jurado has shifted from Waters Ave. S’s full-band approach to the naked-acoustic-with-accompaniment sound of Rehearsals for Departure and the raucous Indie Rock bluster of I Break Chairs.
He’s largely stuck to his original Nick Drake-meets-John Cale style of passionate Folk balladeering. Last year’s Caught in the Trees may well have been the best of Jurado’s career so far, as he teamed with longtime friends Eric Fisher and Jenna Conrad, his new backing band, to craft a noisier soundtrack that hearkened back to I Break Chairs. With Fisher and Conrad rounding out the live sound, Jurado is free to pursue any avenue he’s constructed over the past decade and a half on stage, resulting in a powerful experience no matter which direction(s) he takes.
He’ll play at 5 p.m. in-store at Shake It Records in Northside followed by a performance at the Mad Hatter with mewithoutyou and psalters. Get show details and Sound Advice here.
This article appears in Aug 5-11, 2009.