Damien Jurado

Caught In the Trees (Secretly Canadian)

By Jonathan Shipley
Published: September 3rd, 2008 | 9:00am

Damien Jurado, a lifelong Seattle native, doesn't sound "Seattle." There's no hint of the hard-edged guitar, wailing vocals, thrashing drums. No Nirvana here. No Soundgarden. In fact, Jurado's low-key folk ballads are more attuned to a city a couple hours south: Portland, former home of Elliot Smith. Jurado's latest album, Caught In the Trees, off the Secretly Canadian label, proves not only a Smith-like quality but, more importantly, a Jurado quality. It just may be his strongest work to date.

His songs are soft, strummed, quiet rhythms and yet — due to their concise lyrics and the storytelling ability in a four-minute cut — each is a soundtrack to an emotionally charged short story. "You'll be happy to know the situation is worse / The endless bottles of pills never seem to work," starts the driven, damn depressing, "Coats Of Ice." "Sheets" starts like a Jack Johnson lullaby — without the banana pancake happiness, "You have the nerve to look me in the eyes and lie." Featuring the lyrics of Jenna Conrad, "Best Dress" is a focused stomp through a night on the town, with Conrad providing country-tinged vocals on this track, amongst others.

There's sadness leaking out of every strum of the guitar, every pull of the bow across a cello, most every syllable that comes from Jurado's mouth. Perhaps he'll get his much-deserved praise from this album. If not, he might write even sadder songs — and there's no telling what that album would be like.

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