Tom Brosseau - Empty Houses Are Lonely

Genre rock Publisher Fat Cat Records External Links Official Tom Brosseau Website Official Fat Cat Records Website

Tom Brosseau hails from North Dakota, but collects his influences from around the country, drawing on old blues and folk artists like Leadbelly and Marty Robbins. Empty Houses Are Lonely gathers songs from his first three records: 2002's North Dakota, 2004's Late Night at Largo, and 2005's What I Mean to Say Is Goodbye.

Depending on which photo you see, you might think Brosseau was rounding twenty or approaching fifty. Ambiguity of age is part of his appeal, as well as ambiguity of gender: his voice hovers somewhere between frail tenor and husky alto. From "Fragile Mind" on, Empty Houses shows off this curious voice over finger-picked acoustic guitar, sometimes backed with tasteful arrangements. Though some of the lyrics are folk-familiar to the point of parody ("No one knows/my empty mind's been fragile"), they are frequently better. "I have held onto every memento/in the wake of the storm/some remain in fairly good shape / and others in rare form," keens Brosseau during the mesmerizing a cappella opening of "Hurt To Try." His voice, like wet clay, slides and slips with an unlikely smoothness, pouring its blues microtones deep into your ear: intimate, to say the least. A touch of drums and organ round out songs when appropriate, like the accordion accompaniment on "Everybody Knows Empty Houses Are Lonely" and harmonica on "Dark Garage." Brosseau foregoes the huge orchestral swells and leaps from the plain to the grandiose that less disciplined and talented songwriters might be tempted to use to distract from weaker material. Instead, sparse live recordings stand on their own, complete with the occasional flubbed finger-pick, but the price is worth it for such a close sound, as on "How To Grow A Woman From The Ground" and "Lonesome Valley."

Brosseau's voice doesn't need too long to work its magic, and at ten songs, Empty Houses Are Lonely gives it enough time but doesn't overstay its welcome, getting out just as things slow down to a crawl on "Bars." Anyone who thinks it's not enough will have three more albums to explore; for others, Empty Houses will suffice for any sudden craving for quiet, intimate contemporary folk songs.