Seattle's Damien Jurado set for City Varieties appearance

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Seattle singer-songwriter Damien Jurado is returning to the UK for a bunch of shows that will include one in Leeds next month.

Jurado released his intimate latest release ‘In The Shape of A Storm’ last year and is following up with his first UK appearances in support of the album with an appearance at Leeds' City Varieties on Tuesday, February 25.

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Moving away from his psychedelic-tinged records of recent times, ‘In The Shape Of A Storm’ saw the singer deliver his most reflective and haunting collection yet. Released to widespread acclaim, the record was hailed by MOJO as: “an intimate affirmation of Jurado’s current brilliance”.

Jurado has always worked fast, but 'In the Shape of a Storm' came together with unprecedented speed. Recorded over the course of two hours one California afternoon, it’s his sparsest album to date. Gone are the thundering drums and psychedelic arrangements that defined the trilogy of concept albums he made with his longtime collaborator and close friend Richard Swift. Gone even is the atmospheric air that hovered above his early albums for Sub Pop.

Damien JuradoDamien Jurado
Damien Jurado

Here, there’s only Jurado’s voice, acoustic guitar, and occasional accompaniment from Josh Gordon, playing a high-strung guitar tuned Nashville style, rendering its sound spooky and celestial.

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Though fans have long requested a solo acoustic album, the prospect never made sense to Jurado, until one day it simply did. “It just felt like it was time,” Jurado says. The idea of an unadorned album became its own medium in his mind, like a painter who sets down his brushes and instead opts for charcoal pencils instead.

Jurado’s discography is filled with songs written as miniature movies, cinematic vignettes that capture people, the places they are from, and where they are going. 'In the Shape of a Storm' is his first black and white picture. It’s both a snapshot of two hours in a California recording studio and a document spanning 19 years and a life of music. It is the sound of a singer pouring out possible futures and visions. “I believe songs have their own time and place,” Jurado says. For these 10, that time has finally come.

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