TRAVELIN’ TOM: Tom Brosseau’s coming back to town. Many will remember the soft-voiced, tenderly tonal folksinger, who used to be something of a regular in our regional music venues and places like Buffalo Records while living in L.A. In the coming days, he will play not one but two gigs in our lucky 805. First, on Friday, October 5, Brosseau will join inventive songsmith Toy Shop Ghost at The Piano Kitchen (430 Rose Ave.) in a special KCSB-sponsored performance at 8 p.m. The following day, Saturday, October 6, 7:30 p.m., Brosseau will play at the Lompoc Wine Factory (321 N. D St.) as part of the SipMusic Club concert series.
No matter where he roams, Brosseau’s whole being will always reside, at least partly, in his home of North Dakota. “My heart, my soul, every city town or location is hopefully a step back to getting closer to North Dakota,” he said in a recent phone interview. On plaintive works, such as 2016’s North Dakota Impressions, Brosseau continues to explore the land of his youth. “That town, those people, all those spaces — they’re little diamonds that get locked into your upbringing, and you spend the rest of your life trying to figure out a place.”
Brosseau translates across musical time, culling from traditional tunes to reflect on what still rings true today. “I know musicians that are like they’ve been transported from the Civil War era, probably even have the underpants to back it up, if you know what I’m saying,” he said of some folk traditionalists. “I think where the bulk of us rest, it’s not so much a time past but a sense of timelessness, just floating maybe, in this bowl of the world, instead of being rooted to the 1800s or 1700s. I’m not really so much a performer as I am a collector, collecting songs that belong to everybody — you’re a part of this pool of collectors, hunting for those great melodies, those sentiments that were expressed so poetically once upon a time and still fit in today.”