Damien Jurado

Since the late '90s, singer/songwriter Damien Jurado has built up one of the strongest catalogs on the indie scene, earning high critical praise for a poignant folk songcraft that has transcended detours into pop, roots rock, full-fledged electric indie rock, psychedelia, and even found-sound experiments. Many of Jurado's songs spin concise, literate tales of quiet, everyday despair, which have often earned him comparisons to short-story writer Raymond Carver. Following a handful of self-released cassettes, Jurado made his official full-length debut in 1997 with Waters Ave S. His second album, 1999's Rehearsals for Departure, proved to be his critical breakthrough, and he found his way onto the Billboard 200 for the first time with the Richard Swift-produced Maraqopa trilogy in the 2010s. He followed that with a series of sparer, self-produced albums, including 2022's Reggae Film Star.