Imagine if you'd been blown away by an album back in 1999, had followed the singer's career ever since, convinced he was one of the world's best songwriters, then finally got the chance to tell him how powerful you thought that album was, and his reply was: "I hate that record."
I was thrown. I probably shouldn't have been. Damien Jurado's songs are uncompromising; his attitude to the music business is uncompromising; so why shouldn't his verdict on his own work be similarly unforgiving? The critics disagreed with Jurado's view of that album. They loved Rehearsals for Departure; but then they also liked its predecessor, his debut, Waters Ave S, and he is even harder on that. "I hate that too. I'm embarrassed by it,"
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Damien Jurado isn't giving up the day job - but that's why his songs connect with people