In the ’90s, when the entire music scene in his adopted hometown of Seattle zigged one way, towards punk and grunge, Damien Jurado zagged the opposite, picking up an acoustic guitar and embracing vintage folk. Encouraged by the genre’s longstanding embrace of unusual voices, Jurado began self-releasing a series of cassettes that captured his quavering, mournful, slightly off-kilter croon over strummed, mournful ballads. Slowly, his prolific recording schedule and journeyman touring won him a cult following nationwide, and over a career spanning a decade and a half, he’s released numerous EPs, singles and tour-only discs, as well as nine proper studio albums.
January 2, 2012
