Damien Jurado has a restless, prolific mind, and it has taken him to many places, from recording his music on his own cassette label Casa Recordings in the mid 90s, to experimenting with found sound, and an extended poetic voyage in a trilogy of albums: Maraqopa (2012), Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son (2014) and the very recently released Visions of Us on the Land (March 2016). The Seattle singer/songwriter will soon travel to Israel for the first time, to perform at the Barby in Tel Aviv on July 10, 2016.
The terrain he explores is often harsh and desolate, yet something low-key and direct about these songs tempers the harshness, as though to say – well, that’s just how it is. “I want to sing about the human condition, I want to sing about things that people can relate to,” he said in an interview in 2000, and that is what he has been doing for the past 20 years. Sometimes there is something almost delicate about his voice, sometimes it sings with a road-weary roughness. It’s easy to follow him down and lose yourself in the songs, and connect to this emotional landscape, perhaps because as far down as he may go, he’s also singing the desire to float up.
Some of the songs have a spare, indie-folk feel
others a more lush, full, sound
Wherever you dive in, it feels good to lose yourself in these songs.
Damien Jurado, July 10th concert at the Barby, Tel Aviv, doors open at 20:30, seated performance. Tickets are 110 NIS, and may be purchased online via this link. Link to the facebook event page.
