Shurman

Shurman emerged as a Los Angeles-to-Austin outfit whose sound leans twangy, reflecting lead singer Aaron Beavers’ Texas origins and drummer Damon Allen’s upbringing in Georgia. The pair first crossed paths after Beavers’ family relocated from Texas to Allen’s hometown outside Atlanta. At age thirteen they toyed with the notion of forming a band, yet college sent them in different directions—Beavers to Hawaii and Allen to L.A. Contact never lapsed; Beavers mailed Allen every one of the hundred songs he composed during his time in Hawaii. Allen persuaded Beavers that Los Angeles offered the right setting to launch the group they had long discussed, prompting Beavers to make the move. Under the original Shurman lineup they issued two EPs—2000’s Songs to Tell Your Friends About and 2001’s Superfecta—while maintaining a relentless touring schedule that averaged two hundred dates annually. The activity generated strong interest within the alternative-country scene and attracted several prominent allies, among them Lucinda Williams’ guitarist Doug Pettibone, Dashboard Confessional member John Lefler, and Mavericks’ co-founder Ben Peeler. These musicians contributed to the recording of the unsigned band’s debut album, Jubilee. Vanguard acquired the project and issued it in April 2005. Guitarist Jason Moore and bassist Keith Hanna soon joined the lineup, after which the refreshed Shurman returned to the road in support of the release.