folk ruminations year-end Tom Brosseau is a singer, a musician, a folk singer old-fashioned way: voice, guitar and a bag of melancholy to be repaid in fluid melodies.
Unknown to many, often hangs out at
Largo in Los Angeles, a place that opens its doors only to hard-core folk. There
Tom has also recorded a live solo,
Late Night at Largo, in 2004, on stage surrounded by the silence of the deserted stalls. In the splendid lineup
Mary Anne recently borrowed by his
Adam Price (aka
Mice Parade) to close his latest work
What It Means To Be Left-Handed .
Just
Mary Anne , Brosseau has put online a delicate version
Angela Correa (aka
Correatown ). Spartan arrangement but that just does not need to be more effective.
To all the folk two, who call themselves
Les Shelleys, travel light, comfortable shoes and little stuff in the backpack, including cafes (and this is already a stretch to call them) that has few viewers (and define such hyperbole is already) and modest bar frequented by drunk patrons (and it is simplistic to define these). Their motto is eloquent: "simple music, good for the soul."
For style and humility, Brosseau is reminiscent of a great songwriter who is just off the house:
Grant-Lee Phillips .
Grant-Lee has won success, he has eagerly ate the fruit and soon forgot the flavor. His bad luck, yes, but fortunately for fans who still enjoy pearls ignored as
Virginia Creeper and the rest. Lost favor with the masses, Phillips is still playing in pubs and indecent crumbling stairs, with unwavering passion surrounded by indie band of excellent workmanship and embraced dall'affettuoso public that for years the following into the channels parallel to the mainstream. With
Winterpills last spring, has embarked on a mini tour that took him to rougher around America and underground (here a splendid version of Mona Lisa
). Collaboration is pursued at a later unspecified bedroom (used, apparently, nothing but a recording studio!) Where he was born
Tuxedo of Ashes, an EP released two months ago.
In Italy there is a folk Paradisco comparable to Largo, certainly not in my part. And it is really hard to remember a "star" that our local boards a rickety shelf to perform behind small fee, just the desire for fun.
Brosseau advise would be the case, Phillips & Co. that if your content with playing in a tavern, they can do it here. Italy reception, moreover, is very warm.
_____
PS: It has recently been made official, just by Grant-Lee, the news of the reunion of Grant Lee Buffalo will be on tour in 2011. I just hope it does not throw to the winds their past in the name of money and nostalgia.