Sometimes, you really can go home again -- Fort Worth native Jacob Furr is living proof.
After a four-year stint at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, and an 18-month interlude in San Francisco ending early last year, the 25-year-old singer-songwriter moved back to North Texas with his wife, Christina, to settle in the Near Southside.Amid all the transitions, Furr, a guitar player for as long as he can remember, began pursuing music in earnest. The affable Furr had long dabbled in music as a hobby -- he previously released an album, 2009's The Long Road, and a pair of EPs in 2011, the To Kill a Mockingbird-inspired Finches and The Townes Covers, paying tribute to the late Townes Van Zandt, one of Fort Worth's greatest musical treasures.It was only after friends in San Francisco urged him to spend more time with his folk-flecked compositions that he decided to go all-in with his latest EP, Farther Shores."A lot of the album just has to do with ideas of home: What does that mean [and] how much influence should a place have over you," Furr says.Ironically, nearly all of the songs were written while Furr and his wife were living within sight of the San Francisco Bay and taking drives into the rolling countryside.There's a nautical underpinning to many of the tracks -- complete with titles like Voices on the Sea and Sailed Away Master -- yet the salt-water-soaked lyrics are offset by Furr's decidedly rustic musical approach, which takes its cues from the Lone Star State's indelible blend of sun-blasted country atmospherics, lacing these coastal yarns with pedal steel and reverb-laden guitar.Furr, who works at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, began recording Farther Shores last summer at his home studio, only to intentionally delete everything and start over a few months later, simplifying arrangements and making the songs more austere. He likens the act to "the environment of painters": "There's a sense of composition; destroy it if you don't like it and start over."Furr will release Farther Shores digitally at jacobfurr.bandcamp.com on Jan. 31 (and you can find his previously released material on the site as well), but ahead of that, he'll be playing Jan. 25 at Tie Restaurant in downtown Fort Worth and Feb. 3 at Zio Carlo's Brewpub on Magnolia Avenue.His re-entry into the Fort Worth music scene has been gradual -- "When I moved back [from San Francisco], I was kind of surprised," Furr says. "It's been exciting to move back and have decided to pursue this; it's definitely fun to be part of the community" -- and he is reconnecting with people he grew up knowing, citing bands like Telegraph Canyon and the Hanna Barbarians as favorites.Furr also won't rush what comes next, electing to focus on Farther Shores for the time being and keep refining the few songs he has written since recording the EP. Now that he's back home, music will be a more prominent part of his life, with little regard for satisfying anyone other than himself -- not that he doesn't hope Farther Shores, and all future efforts, strikes a chord with listeners.Says Furr: "I hope [Farther Shores] would cause people to think about where they're from, what they allow to make them and what they seek that would ... have an effect on them."Preston Jones is the Star-Telegram pop music critic, 817-390-7713Twitter: @prestonjonesHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
