Tom Brosseau, a North Dakota native, sings songs of lost love and poetic observation that shimmer like aural tintypes. His song writing comes from such diverse influences as Nick Drake, Cole Porter, and Woody Guthrie. The ingredient in this mix that will flat out give you chills is Brosseau’s voice, which sounds eerily like a high-lonesome reincarnation of Jeff Buckley. “What I mean to say is Goodbye,” is a record that touches on, in Brosseau’s words, “abandoned buildings, new love, the prairieland, being haunted, roaming around, and being thrilled and killed.” The record has that quality of an intimate conversation at the next table that you just can’t pull your ear away from. Brosseau’s voice is center stage, supported by his delicate guitar playing and a cast of players that drop in and out of the recording providing subtle responses to Brosseau’s lyrics. He can be hauntingly moody and atmospheric, and avoids easy garden-variety verse-chorus-bridge song structures in his writing. Brosseau is on to something new by way of something old-deep, heartbreaking, and entirely worth hearing.
"Grand Forks" (Loveless) is such a good record. He's like a Woodie Guthrie nomadic poet. He drives around the country and plays in small bars and coffeehouses. He looks like a Mormon missionary, someone who'd go door to door and sell you Bibles. He's got this lyric that sticks with me. Someone who hasn't left home might not get it, but for someone like me (or Tom Brosseau) who loves home but knows deep down that they have to leave, this lyric stands out. He's from North Dakota and he says, "I even miss how cold it gets, but I never thought I would." To me, that's profound; it sums up how, when you leave home, all those things you don't like about home, you miss them when you're gone. Like when you're spending time in Los Angeles, you miss the rain in Seattle.
- Brandi Carlile, NY Times
Grand Forks features Great Flood songs set to Dust Bowl music with a vaporously angelic voice hovering above it all. Devatstation, struggle, survival, tenacity and optimism all battle it out on this gritty collection of songs chronicling the 1997 Red River flood that washed out 90 percent of downtown Grand Forks and displaced 10 percent of all North Dakota residents from their homes. You can hear the fear mixed with resignation on the eerie "Here Comes the Water Now", where Tom Brosseau's falsetto hits some otherworldly notes. Brosseau, a native of Grand Forks, is a prolific singer-songwriter - this is his sixth release in as many years - whose high-register voice can stop people in their tracks. This themed acoustic guitar-centered set - with minimal accents of organ, snare drum, lap and pedal steel, upright bass, and violin - draws even more attention to Brosseau's plaintive lyrics and vocals. The most bedazzling moment is a duet with John Doe on the waltz-timed "Fork in the Road" with Doe taking the high vocal harmony. It is vulnerably beautiful.
- Scott Brodeur, ND
"As for opener Tom Brosseau-- can this guy really exist? Awkward aw-shucks bumpkin Brosseau, far as I could tell, wasn't putting on an act. He really was slipping up because he had "ants in his pants," as he put it. And he really did try to convince the governor of his home state, North Dakota, to write the liner notes for his album-- by impersonating Bob Hope's bit in Spies Like Us. So Tom's between-song story went. In all, Brosseau's banter made a more favorable and lasting impression than his vaguely-quirky, blue-eyed folk tunes, but both suited the evening's no-frills fireside vibe."
- Matthew Solarski, Pitchfork
Sometimes an album doesn't require grand dynamics if it's central attraction is consistently mesmerizing. Tom Brosseau's lovely, lilting, almost-feminine folk vocals guide Grand Forks like an affable ship captain sailing the calmest of seas. Hints of lap steel and Appalachian accents that reference his blue-grass upbringing make this a mature singer-songwriter record, if not quite predictably serene enough for the Jack Johnson set. But it's beauty still lies in an eagerness to gently steer the boat and not rock it.
-Kenny Herzog, CMJ
First, a clarification: the title is not a reference to very big utensils but to that "island in a prairie sea," Grand Forks, N.D. Even more specifically, Brosseau likens his Spartan nine-song collection to the historic flood of 1997 that devastated the city. Yet, for those not privy to that information, the concept may pass over their heads completely unnoticed. What will surely be noticed, however, is Brosseau's honey-sweet voice that warms the ears with its tender tales and universal themes framed delicately by folksy fingerpicked guitars and, in places, the lamenting strings of Grammy-winning violinist Hilary Hahn. Rarely louder than a lullaby, it's a precious take on a terrible time.
- Shawn Telford, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
In addition to being comparable to traditional folk legends (Mississippi John Hurt, Woody Guthrie) Brosseau parallels American bards like Whitman and Emerson with a spirit of democracy and a mild transcendental streak. The album is a candid and charming portrait of this obscure American city. Sufjan Stevens had his Illinois, now Tom Brosseau has Grand Forks.
- Joe Tacopino, PopMatters
With impassionate lyrics, simple guitar compositions and his unusually high voice Santa Monica singer/songwriter Tom Brosseau has built a loyal following primarily centered on a solo acoustic format that is akin to Woody Guthrie. While he has broke free from his format on his previous recordings, Grand Forks, Brosseau changes tempo just enough to almost be categorized as folk rock yet still retains his organic roots.
- Tony Engelhart, Glide Magazine
There is no easy category to suit Tom Brosseau, a South Dakota native and L.A. singer-songwriter, who sings an eerie form of folk music in a high and lonesome falsetto. His fifth album has a certain antiquity to it, even though it is focused on a relatively recent event: The disastrous 1997 Red River flood in Grand Forks, N.D. Brosseau channels residual impressions from that event - homelessness, violence - through images that stand unwavering and clear in this simple but chilling music.
- Mark Guarino, Chicago Daily Herald
Not many artists invite both a former town mayor and state governor to pen liner notes to their album. Fewer still have current it-virtuoso violinist Hilary Hahn as a guest performer, particularly when their identity is virtually unknown. And an even smaller number are in the same echelon as Tom Brosseau, whose under-the-radar status as one of the best American originals to emerge in the past three decades will shock anyone who comes into contact with his singular timbre and gorgeous narratives.
- Bob Gendron, Absolute Sound
He’s got the plain-spoken directness of Hank Williams Sr. and a delicate way of phrasing that sometimes recalls Billie Holiday. He’s totally earthbound and at the same time sorta out there in the ether.
- Tom Moon, NPR’s All Things Considered
As the garage door came down making it’s slow grinding scrape, it was like a door to hell was sealing. That’s how hot La Mesa gets in July. That’s where Tom & Gregory made this record, (I helped when time premitted). It’s not life & death like an immigrant in the back of a bob-tailed truck but closer to that than any recording studio I’ve seen. I only wished that I could’ve been there every moment the mono-red-light was on. The songs & performances are incomparable.
- Kyle Wagner, Transform
With the critically acclaimed and hauntingly beautiful What I Mean to Say is Goodbye, Tom Brosseau secured a place as one of the brightest young talents in American folk music. The sense of space, location, and longing that resonate within that album are still here in his latest release, Grand Forks, but the subject and expression are now more refined. The slight nervousness that sat underneath his wavering and wandering voice has been replaced with a light confidence and a firmer sense of purpose. Here you are offered a breathtaking encapsulation of his hometown in North Dakota with images and emotions compelling enough to invoke an imaginary road trip through that sparsely populated and often ignored region of the United States. In the space between the slowly plucked notes of “Blue Part of the Windshield,” you can sense entire lives being quietly played out to the rhythms of the Red River.
- John Doe, Lockwood Valley, Ca. ‘06
Album of the Week. This LA folkie originally hails from Grand Forks, N.D., where in 1997 the Red River flooded and destroyed much of the town. In traditional folk style, this record tells the story of that harrowing experience from the eyes of someone who experienced it.
- Paul Saitowitz, The Press-Enterprise
Behind the pastoral vocals and the classic arrangements, Grand Forks is, in the most simplistic terms, a good folk album. Traditional folk music, which got its name because it’s music by and about common people, is an expression of a way of life, and this is exactly what Brosseau does. He weaves tales of life and the lives of those who reside in Grand Forks, North Dakota - his home town... Jimmy Rodgers, Woody Guthrie and early Dylan are cited as influences to Brosseau, and that list gives you a very good representation of both the sound and his pure-folk storytelling style. He’s not only an inspired poet, but is gifted in the way he sets those poems to music.
- Connie Philips, BC Music
The latest release from this Grand Forks, ND native is a deeply moving concept album about the 1997 flood that devastated the town, combining intimate production with Brosseaus high, tremulous vocals and poignant songwriting influenced by both traditional folk and Tin Pan Alley pop.
- Don Yates, KEXP
To approach this record head-on is to miss its subtle, timeless beauty. It must find you at the right moment, sidling into your consciousness as you fold laundry or rest in your favorite chair on a Sunday afternoon. It must float around with hidden design until your soul is ready to receive it. Only then will Brosseau’s voice, a wonderfully precise and delicate falsetto full of vibrato, resonate to its highest potential. Only then will his sparing guitar work, soulful harmonica flourishes, and tales of love and woe really make sense. True beauty does not smack you across the head; it simply waits, patient and unchanging, for you to understand it.
- Nate Seltenrich, PopMatters
Best contemporary folk album nominees: “Chavez Ravine,” Ry Cooder; “The Outsider,” Rodney Crowell; “Why Should the Fire Die?” Nickel Creek; “Fair & Square,” John Prine; “Devils & Dust,” Bruce Springsteen.
Who got shafted: Newcomer Tom Brousseau’s “What I Mean to Say is Goodbye”
Twenty great songs from 2005 that the Grammys missed, sequenced for your listening pleasure:
18. “West of Town,” Tom Brosseau (Loveless): After a devastating flood, an ode to absence and memory.
Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune has his say on the Grammy’s
Bonnie Raitt, who in the past has championed underrecognized talents like Sippie Wallace and John Hiatt, has been raving about Brosseau lately in interviews. It’s also easy to hear why Brosseau’s latest album, What I Mean to Say Is Goodbye, landed on Best of 2005 lists from both the Chicago Tribune and Billboard’s guest writer John Doe. From its opening song’s meditation on the 1997 flood that swept away much of Brosseau’s hometown to the richly evocative “Wear and Tear,” about a decaying barn infused with ghosts of the past, the album suggests the emergence of a unique and promising talent.
- Bill Forman
Those of you who peruse these columns with some regularity may recognise the relatively unknown name of Tom Brosseau from my earlier ravings. Of course, if these ravings had been of little consequence, my family and friends would have been justified in their belief that the men in white coats were coming for me. So, now, in my defence, I can hold up the evidence of this new record and the fact that Bonnie Raitt says “there’s a guy, Tom Brosseau - wait till you hear him”. Hey, hold that ambulance.
- Steve Henderson, NetRhythms
All folk music needs is another singer-songwriter wielding an acoustic guitar and an armful of sad songs. And yet L.A.’s Tom Brosseau, with his six-string and quiet sorrow, is precisely what today’s folkies need. Brosseau sings in an effeminate tenor, with phrasing and lyrics that strangely make him sound like he’s from another era altogether: an era when music was more lullaby and necessity than commodity.
- Benjamin Friedland, HARP
Brosseau has captured the sparse intimacy of old-school country and folk: You could play some of his less-embelllished songs and easily convince someone they were recorded 50 years ago.
- Time Out NY
[Tom Brosseau’s] distinctive timbre, delicate intimacy, and melodically unconventional arrangements separate him from the endless contemporary muddle of dime-a-dozen singer-songwriters. He’s one of the few who not only merit the knee-jerk association to Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley, but whose buttermilk emotion and atmospheric range are in the same league.
- Bob Gendron, The Absolute Sound
Troubadour Tom Brosseau is a favorite of blueswoman Bonnie Raitt, who recently sang his praises in an interview. But the Los Angeles-via-North Dakota resident possesses all of the necessary elements for folk superstardom: a soothing voice (think Dylan without the gravel, or a less-trembling Jeff Buckley) and spartan, acoustic guitar-driven tunes that treasure simplicity and subtlety. Even this year’s lushly orchestrated What I Mean to Say Is Goodbye -- harmonium, strings and Wurlitzer all arrive to add color -- feels as uncomplicated as a quiet afternoon spent sipping tea.
- Riverfront Times
The whole neo-folk thing gets a little stale when songwriter after urban songwriter starts telling hard-luck tales with a suspicious drawl lifted from somewhere more authentic like the Mississippi Delta or the prairie states. But North Dakota-raised Tom Brosseau has the amber-waves-of-grain kinda cred you just can’t fake. We’ll give him a pass for his recent relocation to L.A., if only because his melancholy, almost feminine voice—a ‘30s-era croon that wouldn’t be out of place on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack—is so heartbreakingly addictive. Plus, this corn-fed boy knows his way around a six-string. Brosseau’s bashful, between-song banter and easy-on-the-eyes looks make his live act even more irresistible.
- Maya Kroth, The Stranger
Performing Songwriter: There really are some incredible songs out there, aren’t there?
Bonnie Raitt: You know, someone just said to me a couple of days ago in an interview that there didn’t seem to be any great new songwriters coming up or that it seemed more bleak, and I just said, “Oh, no... it’s not bleak at all.” The Internet has made things so much more possible; it’s harder to wade through how many thousands of entries there are, but just when you think you’ve heard everything there’ll be the most unusual great new song. Like this guy Amos Lee, and there’s a guy Tom Brosseau—wait till you hear him.
- Performing Songwriter
Brosseau’s earnest depictions of the intricacies of life — the small towns, the simple people, the seemingly unimportant events that mean so much — aren’t at all manufactured. He doesn’t need a Nashville-bought cowboy hat and boots to convey the honest ache and vivid scenes of home.
- Kristen Schaer, Performer Magazine
The instrumentation, stark and spare, is set under Brosseau’s delicate and gentle voice, and makes every song richly beautiful, informing the listener about the kind of poignancy and emotion that is possible in simple music. In true Bob Dylan fashion, Brosseau’s lyrics take center stage like a symphonic poem. It’s American folk music at its best and every song is worth one’s quiet and relaxing Sunday afternoon time.
“...My friend John Doe calls my work prog-rock. I think the songwriter I am is that I concentrate on the story first and I’m not too concerned about structure, but more so about meter,” said Brosseau. “So in the end I think it’s kind of progressive, so, who knows, maybe I’m starting a new genre: prog-folk.”
- Whitney Youngs, Beach Reporter (Orange Co.)
On his debut, What I Mean to Say Is Good Bye, Brosseau finds beauty in simplicity and storytelling. This collection of a dozen guitar-picked tracks displays a warm sound that finds its perfect companion in Brosseau’s soft, subtle voice. His style of singing and charming vocal cracks evokes Woody Guthrie and Nick Drake, but his true power rests in his songwriting. Covering love, longing and death, each lyric is so poetically crafted that it’s difficult to do anything but chew gum while listening.
- Jack Booty, Prefix
8.0 - He’s not quite thirty. He’s lived in this town forever, it seems. He walked in on his best friend making love to his sweetheart. His mother and father lost the farm, but he had to stay in town to watch it go to some other family while helping out at the garage. He’s still thankful to have the moonlight, though, when he walks home from work, and that makes him thankful. When he sits out on the big rock at the end of the yard in the small house in-town now and plays and sings for his friends, they know he would have been a star before rock and roll, before the atomic bomb, before his best friend made love to his sweetheart in their bed. This album gets such a high rating for being so original, so consistent, and for having one of the best songs of the year, a gorgeous Hank Williams betrayal baying, “That’s When Your Heartache Begins.”
- Chris Estey, three imaginary girls
About Tom Brosseau & Friends, Jordan Caress opens Wilco’s in Canada and Jeff Buckley’s dead. What better reason to catch 28-year-old folkster Tom Brosseau, who brings songs about abandoned buildings, new love ...
- Boston Globe Metro
While guitars, pianos and the stray harmonica or two color and shade the tunes, it’s Brousseau’s gossamer voice that makes him unique, even among the airy male singers he most closely resembles. His are gentle, but emotive pipes: pretty, but not feminine, and initially an acquired taste, but soon transporting. And refreshing: there is no faux British accent, no pretentious, elongated syllables or breathy, incoherent deconstructions.
- Chad Berndtson, The Patriot Ledger
There are times when you watch an artist that is as good as Tom Brosseau that you can imagine them in a different setting, in a different time. I imagined him playing Austin City Limits for about 4,000 people, about two years from now. His music is Ryan Adams pre Heartbreaker post-Whiskeytown, Dylan pre and post Christian, and Pixies pre Come on Pilgrim all rolled in to one. This guy can write, this guy can connect, and this guy certainly can sing... get to know his name. You will be hearing it in the near future.
- JK, sctas.com
5. Tom Brosseau, “What I Mean to Say is Goodbye” (Loveless)
Greg Kot’s top ten list for his Sound Opinions show on WXRT.
Sung in a voice moved by history, the songs on What I Mean to Say Is Goodbye sound more like dusty relics than some recent studio product. Brosseau’s words are heavy, and his songs, for all their simplicity, are giants. As Pete Seeger, whom Brosseau mentions often both in his music and in conversation, said of Woody Guthrie’s music, “His songs are deceptively simple. Any damn fool can get complicated. It takes genius to attain simplicity.” Brosseau knows this, and his songs and performances reflect his affinity for such economy in songwriting.
- Paul Rivas, The Santa Barbara Independent
What I Mean to Say Is Goodbye is een intrigerende plaat. De teksten blijven boeien door de prachtige klanken die ze voortbrengen en omdat je geen flauw idee hebt in welke tijd of context je ze zou moeten plaatsen. Zoals ook de melodieën ongrijpbaar zijn. Hoe vaak je de nummers ook hoort, kennen doe je ze nooit en zo laat het album je niet los. De fascinatie voor dit meesterwerk zal dan ook zeker niet vergaan nadat we het prominent in onze jaarlijsten hebben gezet. Van What I Mean to Say Is Goodbye zullen we nooit afscheid nemen.
- Alexis Vos, Kinda Muzik
Listening to Tom Brosseau’s record feels like flipping through an album of overexposed photographs. You catch glimpses of crippled pets, abandoned cars, wind-swept prairies, and round-cornered snapshots of proms gone wrong. The details remain murky, distant, and a little sad. “What I Mean To Say Is Goodbye” is a set of wounded, unvarnished ballads, waltzes, lullabies, traditional prayers, and cradle and turtledove songs. It’s in the tradition of Townes Van Zandt and early Leonard Cohen, with a songwriting style that is part Raymond Carver and part Woody Guthrie. The instrumentation is as spare and plain as dirt; here and there a harmonium, a violin, or a celeste, but mostly it’s driven by acoustic guitar. On “Grafton,” if you listen very closely, you can detect the sound of creaking floorboards. Jon Brion, mastermind behind the scores of P.T. Andersen’s movies and a producer in his own right, accompanies on guitar for “St. Joe St.” You can imagine the song punctuating one of the many bleak moments in an Andersen film. This is one of the loneliest, prettiest, unfanciest albums you’re ever going to hear. Find an open window and a spring shower and let it play over and over
- Michael Neault
Fans of Woodie Guthrie, Devendra Banhart, and Townes Van Zandt take note. Heartbreak, happiness, and hometowns: Tom Brosseau has it all on his new album, including some impressive guest appearances. With the release of What I Mean to Say Is Goodbye, listeners will discover a talented new voice that skillfully mixes traditional instrumental work with innovative vocals. Brosseau offers up simple and beautiful music track after track; there is nothing on this album to skip. It is perfectly produced by Sam Jones, who also produced the Wilco documentary I am Trying to Break Your Heart. Brosseau is a storyteller, and on tracks like “Tonight I Am Careful With You,” his story is enhanced by the work of Benmont Tench (Tom Petty) on the piano. “Wear and Tear” picks up the tempo with the help of Pete Thomas (Elvis Costello and the Attractions) on drums. While Brosseau writes most of the songs himself, he does a version of a traditional, “In My Time of Dying.” The vocals are stunning and the song rounds the album into an exceptional whole.
-Peggy Robinson, Chord Magazine
When you listen to Tom’s new album, you don’t think there’s any possible way he can match the pitch-perfect range in a live show. But it’s actually better, for the same reason that listening to music on vinyl is so much better than a CD: It’s warmer, richer, more alive. You also get to witness what really makes Brosseau a musical force, the ace up his sleeve: his charm. He connects with listeners through his music and his stories and banter in such an intimate way. You feel like he’s playing just for you - you’re the only person in the room, and he wrote and played that song just for you, in the most gorgeous falsetto imaginable.
Reviewed by Josh Brayer
There is a lot of good music out there. There’s also a lot of music you can recognize at good, appreciate as good, but never bring yourself to listen. For many people, Jazz falls into this category. For me, it’s the singer-songwriter genre. There’s usually something just a bit excessively tasteful and NPR-ish about it, with the self-important, self-imposed continued lineage of American folk music pioneers. Sure, it’s good music, just not my cup o’ tea. However, Tom Brosseau’s new album “What I Mean To Say Is Goodbye” manages to install a calm beauty over its twelve songs that’s difficult to dismiss. Brosseau tempers his songwriter aspects, which are definitely there, with equal mixtures of Guthrie folkism and just a bit of Great Plaines country twang.
Jim Bush, kevchino.com Indie Music Reviews
Tom Brosseau looks the part. The whip-thin, fair haired singer-songwriter would fit right in an old photo with early folkies like Woody Guthrie and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and his music -- a snapshot of times gone by -- is just as apropos. Born and raised in Grand Forks, N.D., Brosseau’s songs have a mystical quality to them. His voice has a high-pitched, ghostly timbre that sounds as if it could have been recorded 80 years ago, except for the vibrant edge encompassing it. Jangly, unorthodox guitar playing frames his melodies and gives the songs a fresh feel.... The album is a bit of a departure from Brosseau’s live show in that there is a full backing band, but the sentiment and feel is the same. He paints lyrical pictures describing everything from the tattered-yet-delightful fixtures of an abandoned building to the starkness of the prairie land. Brosseau’s English-major roots manifest in his literary songwriting. “I’m a very avid reader,” he said. “I ... stay away from writing songs about myself because I don’t want to be stuck with a lot of songs that are the same ... I like exploring things.”
Paul Saitowitz, The Press-Enterprise
The third album from this North Dakota-raised, LA-based singer-songwriter is a charming outing of gentle indie-folk with roots stretching back to various folk and pop styles of the early 20th century. Brosseau has a high, elastic voice topped off with a gorgeous, ghostly falsetto that recalls Jeff Buckley, minus Buckley’s occasional histrionic excesses. His songs are as equally distinctive and captivating, combining literate lyrics with melodies from bygone eras.
- Don Yates, KEXP
Tom Brosseau played first, instantly melting hearts with his delicate, falsetto-pitched love songs and ballads, including his bread and butter, “Marianne.” Clare, my cohort in crime, described Brosseau’s charisma perfectly: “He sings with a hundred years of heartache.”
- Josh Brayer
Remember the name: Tom Brosseau is a new kid on the block, part of the growing cadre of self-reliant singer-songwriters who stop in Santa Barbara on their travels. The North Dakota native moved to San Diego and then to Los Angeles, and his live shows and several captivating discs (EPs and CDs) have lured a growing fandom, step by step, gig by gig... In short, Brosseau is onto something new by way of something old, deep, twangy, and altogether worth hearing.
- Josef Woodard
Just last Saturday night I cried here on campus at Club Downunder. As the undiscovered singer/guitarist Tom Brosseau (with the quirky at times, girly at others, prettiest male voice ever) neared set’s end, he played a song called “The Young and Free.” Gosh, it was so beautiful. I sniffled and snotted on my sleeve for the entire second half of the song.
- Kaya Blauvelt, FSView
TOUR DATES
Fri, May 16 Brighton, UK @ Brighton Dome - 8:00pm
Sat, May 17 Bristol, UK @ The Croft - 8:00pm
Sun, May 18 Reading, UK @ Oakford Social Club - 8:00pm
Mon, May 19 London, UK @ 12 Bar 8:00pm
Wed, May 21 Gothenberg, Sweden @ Pusterviksbaren - 8:00pm
Thu, May 22 Lisbon, Portugal @ ZDB - 8:00pm
Fri, May 23 Aveiro, Portugal @ TBA
Sat, May 24 Barcelos, Portugal @ Zoom - 8:00pm
Mon, May 26 Barcelona, Spain @ Harlem Jazz Club - 8:00pm
Sun, Jul 3 Kristiansand, Norway @ Quart Festival - 8:00pm
Thu, Jul 17 Sitka, Alaska @ Home Skillet Festival - 8:00pm
