The prolific Seattle indie-folk veteran Damien Jurado will return with a new album called What’s New, Tomboy? this spring. It’ll be his third album in three years, following 2018’s Secretly Canadian swan song The Horizon Just Laughed and 2019’s Mama Bird debut In The Shape Of A Storm.

While Jurado has been rapidly expanding his discography, he’s been paring down his worldly possessions. In the new album’s official bio, he explains, “I got rid of almost everything I owned. It was almost like I had died, honestly. You know that feeling when someone dies and you have to clear out their apartment or their house? That’s what I did. It was as if I had died, even though I was still living. I donated five of my guitars to a thrift shop.” That impulse extends to the music itself: “I left out certain instruments on purpose,” Jurado writes, “so you’re making space for the listener to fill in their own melodies and parts.”

Our first exposure to this approach is its opening track, a gracefully rolling folk-rocker called “Birds Tricked Into Trees.” Listen below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Birds Tricked Into The Trees”
02 “Ochoa”
03 “Alice Hyatt”
04 “Arthur Aware”
05 “Francine”
06 “Fool Maria”
07 “When You Were Few”
08 “Sandra”
09 “The End Of The Road”
10 “Frankie”

What’s New, Tomboy? is out 5/1 on Mama Bird. Pre-order it here.

CREDIT: Cary Norton