There are days when I miss the land of actual mailing lists, of finding out about a band's appearance close to your town only by way of a fateful bright piece of cardstock-turned-band-mailer that would come in the post by surprise.

Today is not one of those days.

Thanks to Twitter, we're delighted to find out that our pal Tom Brosseau will be serving as special musical guest to Sara Watkins on this week's episode of A Prairie Home Companion. The show will be streaming live from 5-7p (CT) on Saturday, January 15th at the Prarie Home Companion's website, and will be rebroadcasting on NPR the following day {1/16} from 11a-1p (CT). That's twice the Tom for the same low price!

As a sidebar: if you missed the notation on my best of 2010 list, please take a moment to e-search all there is to find about Tom's current project with Angela Correa, called Les Shelleys. It's a slice of stripped-away post.Americana at it's finest, and if you've only got a moment to sample one piece of what they're all about, head on over to their Daytrotter session from this past fall and indulge your ears. It's the next best thing to hearing their sparse, haunting cover of the Supremes' "My World Is Empty Without You, Babe" which was only available for purchase on the All Shelleys Eve Summer 2010 Tour EP.

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This new buoyant and well-crafted album is a huge stylistic shift away from the spare acoustic arrangements of his previous releases though Brosseau's earnest wit and captivating, vibrato-soaked voice is unchanged.

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Cavalier is a thoroughly intimate recording. It is lonely, stark, and stripped of the slightest amount of pretense.

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A raw, beautiful album made even better by the drumming of Jim White.

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