released March 13, 2006

EMPTY HOUSES ARE LONELY
by Tom Brosseau

Empty Houses are Lonely is a compilation of songs, most of them recorded and produced by Gregory Page, in San Diego and Poway, California. Gregory Page is the kind of person who is devoted to recording and writing and making albums - always is working on something, or helping someone. He has this great story about sitting on Paul McCartney's lap at a bull fight in Spain. His mother was part of a group from the 1960's called The Beat Chicks, and they opened the only two shows the Beatles ever did in Madrid. Apparently, right before the matador put the bull to death, Paul covered baby Gregory's eyes - pretty sweet. Not a lot of people have heard these songs. A couple of them are officially previously unreleased, “Bars” and “Hurt To Try.” Most of the songs come from the albums Gregory Page produced entitled North Dakota and Outtakes, v.1 (a.k.a. 5 song demo). The other album from which songs were pulled is Late Night at Largo, produced by a fellow of the name Mark Flanagan. My whole reason for leaving San Diego, California, has a lot to do with Flanny. It was a thrill to record at Largo. Scott Fritz, who recorded Late Night, is pretty great, and really captured the room. He set up this one microphone and that's all we recorded with. I sat up on stage and played.

I think Empty Houses really represents well the early days in San Diego, Poway, and Los Angeles, California. It seemed like I lived in so many places during this time: rented a room in a house, rented a room in a house with my girlfriend, rented an apartment with my girlfriend, moved out from my girlfriend and rented a sleeper in an old hotel, moved from the hotel to a house with a roommate, moved from San Diego. I am affected by the places I have lived, I would say. I think that some strange spirit was looming around in the old hotel where I lived, in the Golden Hills room that I rented too. Things were darker during this time, listen to ‘Fragile Mind” and “How To Grow A Woman From The Ground.”

I have been living in Los Angeles in the same place for three years in a section of town known as Echo Park. Echo Park is quite historic. It's one of the last stops on Sunset Blvd. before Chinatown, before downtown and Union Station. There are all of these mansions in my neighborhood that seem to rise out of nowhere. They used to film Buster Keaton movies here. On a good day, you can see the rolling hillside up on Bonnie Brae St., across from Echo Park pond...you can sometimes make out the Hollywood sign...every hour the ice cream man slowly drives by, with that song being broadcasted out, ringing down the streets. It seems like every where I've lived becomes my new home. And thankfully so.