PREMIERE: Dusty Stray Haunts “Houses” on New Single

Not all ghosts are scary but all ghosts are sad, to a certain degree. Even at their spookiest, ghosts remind us of loss, pain, and the way those feelings have a tendency to linger. For Jonathan Brown, also known as Dusty Stray, these feelings coalesced into a gentle folk tune, “Houses.”

“The song’s about change and falling out of love and out of touch,” writes Dusty Stray. “When I wrote it I’d been listening to a lot of Michael Hurley (one of my all-time favorite songwriters) and I was thinking of the old 8mm home movies I find in flea markets — how they’re these discarded memories, so personal and intimate. I have one that’s almost entirely filmed from the inside of a car as it passes house after house. The title of the album, Estranged, comes from this song.”

Dusty Stray is no stranger to loss and leavetakings: he was born in Taiwan, made his way back to the States for college, then followed romance through Central America, Belgium, Spain, and the Netherlands (where he still resides.) The gentle rhythm of “Houses” is in direct contrast with the lyrics’ contradiction. To open the song, Dusty Stray sings, “I didn’t want you to stay/I didn’t want to you to go away.” The conundrum is made the more heartbreaking as Dusty Stray invokes sun-faded guitars to remind us of glory days that have lost their luster. While the song may seem simple on the surface, it’s guaranteed to become your Big Mood as October slips into November.

Estranged is out this Friday on Strange Waters.