On My Way to Absence (2005)

The sixth CD On My Way to Absence from Seattle's musical Steinbeck opens with a shooting and ends with a burial. In the middle, widows weep, lovers split, and friendships go rancid with resentment. Other singer-songwriters might slather on the strings, but Damien Jurado — a gifted storyteller with an unsentimental eye for detail — makes minimalism his m.o. The songs are bare as winter trees, built from brittle guitars and crackling percussion. When they finally erupt — as ''Icicle'' does — the contrast makes the combustion arresting.