Different furniture company, different day. Same sobering song.

But with the potential for one especially troubling note.

Bassett Furniture Industries is based in Bassett, just down the road in Henry County from Stanleytown, home to Stanley Furniture Corp.

Both companies, importers and manufacturers of wood furniture, released earnings this week for the companies' fourth quarters and fiscal 2007.

Both bemoaned the effects of sluggish furniture sales nationwide, a reality that affects retailers and companies, such as Bassett and Stanley and Hooker Furniture in Martinsville, that supply them.

Bassett, which also operates or licenses its own retail business, sustained an especially tough fourth quarter, losing $4 million.

Robert Spilman, president and chief executive officer, said Bassett faced in fiscal 2007 "the worst industrywide sales slump in memory."

Stanley's CEO provided a similar observation this week, describing the sluggish market as "the longest and deepest furniture recession in a generation."

Meanwhile, an intriguing Securities and Exchange Commission filing this week and related online coverage, accurate or not, struck a potentially discordant note.

Boston-based Costa Brava Partnership III -- which owns nearly 606,000 shares, or about 5.1 percent of Bassett Furniture Industries' stock -- hopes to flex a little muscle at Bassett's 2008 annual meeting.

In a filing Monday with the SEC, Costa Brava, described in the financial press as an "activist hedge fund," announced plans to nominate seven candidates for election to Bassett's nine-person board of directors.

The SEC filing reported that Costa Brava believes that shares of Bassett's common stock are undervalued and that an increased presence on the board will help the partnership monitor management's efforts to increase shareholder value.

One online media outlet, TheDeal.com, quoted Seth Hamot, who is president of Roark, Rearden & Hamot, the general partner of Costa Brava, as saying Costa Brava "wants Bassett to sell its furniture business or spin it off via a joint venture."

Hamot was quoted as saying the furniture business drags down other Bassett businesses, including the International Home Furnishings Center in High Point, N.C., and a portfolio of other assets.

Hamot could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Barry Safrit, a senior vice president and chief financial officer for Bassett, said the company does not know Costa Brava's intentions.

He said Bassett will make a public announcement "at the appropriate time" to the partnership's campaign to elect board members.

Jerry Epperson, a furniture industry analyst, said Wednesday that he could not comment about Costa Brava's filing.

In 2007, Stanley Furniture, Ridgeway Furniture, Bassett Furniture and Hooker Furniture each closed a manufacturing plant and laid off employees.

Both Hooker Furniture and Bassett announced product recalls in 2007 after imported furniture items -- bunk beds for Hooker and cribs for Bassett -- were found to have defects that could endanger children.

Bassett reported Tuesday that the crib recall was one cause for an increase in administrative expenses during 2007.

Bassett's fourth-quarter earnings received a boost of $2.1 million from the federal program that collects duties on wooden bedroom furniture imported from some manufacturers in China and distributes the money to American manufacturers determined to have been affected by the Chinese manufacturers' "dumping" unfairly priced goods in the U.S. market.

Bassett has 130 Bassett Furniture Direct retail stores. Of those, 32 are corporate owned.

Bassett Furniture Industries has about 250 employees in Martinsville and Henry County.

The 105-year-old company's earnings release said Bassett will continue to find ways to control costs.

Might this mean additional layoffs or closings? Bassett still operates a table assembly and finishing plant in Martinsville and a fiberboard plant in Henry County.

"We don't have much left to close," said Safrit.

On Wednesday, the price of the company's stock, which trades on the Nasdaq exchange, closed at $12.67, up 22 cents.