Grand Forks, ND, native Tom Brosseau grew up with music, listening to Marty Robbins, Bob Dylan, Pablo Casals, and Leadbelly, with a bluegrass-playing grandmother who taught him the guitar and a grandfather who had a band and a large record collection. After graduating from the University of North Dakota, Brosseau enrolled in music school but dropped out after only a few weeks, feeling that music theory classes took the fun out of playing. Instead, he started performing at open mic nights around Grand Forks, and eventually moved to San Diego, CA, where he was introduced to musician Gregory Page, who ended up recording and producing much of Brosseau's early material. Brosseau's first album, North Dakota, came out in 2002, followed by 2004's Late Night at Largo, recorded after-hours at a club in Los Angeles (to where he had moved) at which he frequently played. The next year, Loveless Records issued What I Mean to Say Is Goodbye, followed in 2006 by Tom Brosseau, a re-release of older material. Continuing with that same idea, that same year Brosseau, with help from the British Fat Cat label, released Empty Houses Are Lonely, whose songs were pulled from three of his previous records. The following year Grand Forks, inspired by the flood that hit his hometown in 1997, came out.