Damien Jurado

On The Monster Who Hated Pennsylvania, Damien Jurado gathers up ten stories of people determined not to be broken by their dire circumstances. Dire circumstances have long been fixtures of Jurado's songs, which are filled with ghosts, killers, cruel lovers, and the occasional UFO cult or false messiah. But here, the scenes are earthy, drawn from ordinary but no less immense calamities: hurricanes moving toward town, strained connections, amnesiacs in the front yard. On The Monster Who Hated Pennsylvania, he offers up his own Twilight Zone, 'a middle ground between light and shadow 'a dimension of imagination, of half-remembered dreams and people reaching out to cross into that liminal space between heartbreak and wholeness. Jurado knows the territory well. He knows the secret words to whisper at the right time. Press your eye to the speaker, tune your ear to the horizon.

1. Helena
2. Tom
3. Dawn Pretend
4. Song For Langston Birch
5. Minnesota
6. Johnny Caravella
7. Joan
8. Hiding Ghosts
9. Jennifer
10. Male Customer #1