Damien Jurado - Caught In the Trees

Damien Jurado is nothing if not eclectic; having forged an experimental path during the last decade, his sound has migrated from introspective folk to the outright avante garde. In 2002, Jurardo pulled together a disparate collection of dictated missives and released the appropriately titled Postcards and Audio Letters.  However, having settled back to his folk roots since the release of 2003's Where Shall You Take Me?, we now find a Damien Jurado increasingly distancing himself from his experimental past, concentrating rather on simple song-writing. And so it goes that Caught in the Trees finds him faithful to his folk storytelling beginnings, proving his worth with mostly just the bare bones of an acoustic, some rich lyricism and the lilt of female vocals drifting aside.  And when he does push the boundaries it’s restrainedly so - and in the direction of Ryan Adams - as found on album highlight, Coat’s of Ice. [Paul Neeson]