José González

Twenty years since Veneer, his uncompromisingly candid, game-changing debut, Jose González celebrates its anniversary with selected US special solo shows

It’s hard to believe an album recorded with merely the most basic of equipment in a cramped Gothenburg flat could end up going platinum, not only in Sweden but also the UK and selling well over 1 million copies worldwide. It’s harder still when one acknowledges that, aside from one brief trumpet solo and the slightest hint of percussion, the record features just one hushed voice and the dexterous picking of an acoustic guitar’s nylon strings. But 2003’s Veneer was such an album, charting in several countries in the world, and eventually making Top 10 in the UK, thanks in part to its cover of The Knife’s ‘Heartbeats’. To mark this milestone release, Gonzalez returns to the a few selected US stages in 2024 to perform its songs and, no doubt, more than a few other classics, whether his own or interpretations of those written by others.