Jurado’s sound?
Well, it’s not party music

Music Row
By Brian Rademaekers

You would think at the transition from a solo act singer-songwriter to a full-on band would push Damien Jurado to crank out more of his poppy, rocking heart-wrenchers.
Instead, the Washington-based Jurado went the opposite direction on last year’s And Now That I’m Your Shadow. Thirteen tracks in total, Jurado’s most recent work is perhaps his most concentrated stock of delicate melancholy ballads yet.
With a career that spans more than a decade, Jurado boasts a hefty songbook that has received much acclaim. A balladeer at heart, his songs tend to be rooted in Americana, with tinges of indie rock spliced in now and then.
His straightforward songwriting — often paired with a six-string guitar and a harmonica — frequently draws comparison to Bob Dylan and Neil Young.
Through all the years and albums, however, Jurado largely has been a loner, delivering his songs in solitude.
The 2006 work, released on the Secretly Canadian label, features the addition of Eric Fisher and Jenna Conrad to Jurado’s stage and studio presence.
Rather than beef up his desolate and scaled-down sound, his new cohorts only help him heap on the muted and honest sentimentality.
With Conrad’s wispy vocals haunting the background and Fisher’s instrumentals joining Jurado’s guitar and harmonica, And Now That I’m Your Shadow maintains the songwriter’s bleak outlook while also introducing a new layer of intricacy.
Somehow, though, Jurado’s most recent work with his new setup is nearly as sparse as his solo works, making I’m Your Shadow an incredibly hushed collection of songs. And as understated as the songs are in their volume, the lyrics are as loaded as ever. It is an album of depressingly hopeless love affairs, bloody murder, love that never was, and a deep, pure longing for more.
Shrouded in warm acoustic guitar strings and tinkling piano keys, Jurado offers an almost disconcertingly confessional set of ballads that are as sad as they are precious. One of the most harrowing and melodious songs of the album is I Had No Intentions, a ballad that recalls a crime-of-passion slaying from the viewpoint of the fallen man’s brother.
Slowly drifting through the gory scene, I Had No Intentions captures the blunt power of words, and Jurado takes it a step further by adding a highly palpable and Dylan-esque presentation.
What Were the Chances? captures the angst of a man fallen for a married woman. Gasoline Drinks is a suicide note that never gets written. I Am Still Here catches the laments of a husband left alone and pleading, only to have a final rebuke:
Your mother said that you called this morning
"Tell him I love him, but won’t be returning."
On this latest work, Jurado seems smothered in fatalistic pain and destruction. And, in what has long been his saving grace, that state of despair is weaved into breathtaking and touching songs.
Of course, all of this is last year’s album.
With a fresh release tentatively scheduled for this spring, Jurado and his newfound pair of collaborators may be well on their way to a whole new sound. ••

Check it out ...
Who: Damien Jurado
What: A seasoned indie balladeer showing off his new band.
Where: Johnny Brenda’s, Frankford and Girard avenues in Fishtown.
When: Saturday, Sept. 29. Doors open at 9 p.m. Tickets are $10.