Good Music Harvest

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.”

Nowadays, Brosseau’s collecting inspiration from the good feelings still flitting and flowing amid the troubles of the world. “Love is probably the biggest inspiration on the list. There are many instances on the day to day — just open up your news and you’ll see acts of kindness,” he said. “It’s a changing world, and we can tune out so easily; once we do, our deep feelings kind of tune out as well. When I see acts that are motivated by love, that’s what keeps me going for sure.”

MUSIC IN THE ARAW: In KCSB news, the venerable radio station offers up another awesome show on Saturday, October 6, with a free, all-ages, all-invited courtyard concert featuring Long Beach’s Sun Araw and L.A. electronic acts Ahnnu and [[[personablack]]]. Sun Araw’s sound takes listeners on a sonic journey through dreamy jungles of psychedelic tropicalia and drone-y, zone-out sounds. It should be a trippy-good time. Tune in to KCSB 91.9 FM on your friendly car radio to hear further details. The courtyard concert begins at 7 p.m.

ZOOZ CLUES: Many know SOhO as the restaurant and music club (at 1221 State St.), but it’s also the name of a neighborhood (an acronym for South of Houston Street) in New York; next week, these worlds collide. The New York City Subway brass-house sensation Too Many Zooz will hit the SOhO stage on Friday, October 12, at 9:30 p.m., blending, twisting, and reconfiguring genres in the process. Injecting EDM influences with Afro-Cuban and jazz rhythms, the band has created something totally original, finding solace in that unusual place where Mingus and Moroder meet on the dance-club floor.

The day preceding, Thursday, October 11, KCSB presents S.B.’s surf-rock stars Clean Spill with Evolfo, also from New York, at SOhO at 9 p.m. Evolfo are indie rockers of great note, and the bicoastal bill will get rock lovers of all kinds super-stoked.