We’ve already posted a track this week, just a couple of days ago in fact, from Tom Brosseau’s forthcoming long player Perfect Abandon, the sweet folkish ramble of Take Fountain.

However, as soon as we heard Hard Luck Boy, we knew we had to share this too.

It is a tale of casual, yet wholly deliberate abandonment, told in an autobiographical style. Conversational, matter of fact, exact on observed details and minutiae, and ultimately heart breaking.

Left to play ‘fort’ in a rack of sale garments by his mother, he watches the lights eventually go down and the shop close up, and little Tommy realises he has simply been left “four or five” states from home in a city he’s never been to before.

In a way it is reminiscent of classic Arlo Guthrie in style and delivery yet in contrast to his good natured, stoned and rambling tales of being stoned, Hard Luck Boy is equal parts upsetting, puzzling and chilling in its matter-of-factness, and is a mini masterpiece of storytelling.

We are looking forward to the release of Perfect Abandon immensely…

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