Upon catching singer-songwriter Damien Jurado with a grin, a little girl at the day school where he worked exclaimed “You should smile more!” as he told the crowd at a recent show. She was taken aback by the rare expression. His heavy-browed visage doesn’t crack much while performing either, save for a few stories if he’s in the mood. It’s fitting for his more melancholy material which has an accepting, inevitable feel, as though the heartache of which he sings has been written in the cards all along and he’s just been waiting, patiently, for it to take hold so it could be set to music. There is no telling if the man will bring out the between-song stories tonight, but if he does, ask about the time he got beat up by Mary, the girl he paid $2 a week to be his girlfriend. There’s a good chance he’ll crack a smile.

Listen to a sample of Damien Jurado’s “Eastlake.”

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