The Story Behind Damien Jurado’s Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son Album Cover

I’m a softie for album art explanations; I’ve posts in the hundreds combined on Buzzgrinder and Noisecreep, et al., on album art design and the stories behind them.

Former colleague and radio guy (radio-bro? bro-adio? brodio?) Sean Cannon interviewed Damien Jurado for his radio show, and Damien mentioned the cover of Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son.

What’s interesting is that it’s about what happened during the production (photographing) of the cover. Most covers have meaning stemming from conscious agency or memory: the intent of the artist and the designer, but this cover’s meaning comes from an actual, documented real-time experience.

Jurado: I just had this spiritual awakening. I was going through a real trying time. You always hear stories about, “Oh, he was on drugs and he had a bad trip and then he came to the Lord.” Nothing like that. For me it was just a natural progression. I had been on a search for a long, long time. It wasn’t really until the fall of 2012 that it happened for me. From that point on, it was around October 29th, 2012. I was in Florida, on a beach. In fact, the cover that you see on Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son? That’s that moment.

Cannon: That’s what it was?

Jurado: Yeah. That’s a real photo snapped, taken at the real time, that that moment happened in my life. And that was taken by my girlfriend, Lindsey.

Cannon: So the cover of the record is actually—

Jurado: Actually my changing moment.

Cannon: Wow. Was it really just like you said, like an awakening?

Jurado: It was an awakening, but beyond an awakening. It was like living in an empty house for a long time, and then God just sort of moved in. That’s it.