Sam Burchfield has shared a new single. Americana Highways premiered “Morning Light,” noting, “With hushed acoustic guitar and introspective reflective vocal style, this song is a daydream of pondering in the sunrise of the morning light. Strings crescendo like a true sunrise and the effect is subtle yet glorious.” Burchfield recorded the song at home in the middle of the night, stirred awake by an unnerving impulse. “I was dealing with a medical issue at the time, worrying about what it could mean for my family.” The song softly buzzes with the white noise of a sleeping household, Burchfield's vocals hushed and heavy, delivering an unconventional lullaby. “I was writing a message of comfort to myself when I needed it,” he says. The Blue Ridge Mountains songwriter will release his new full-length ‘Nature Speaks’ on October 24 via Cloverdale Records.
Recorded in just five days at Studio 1093 in Athens, Georgia with co-producers Ryan Plumley and Jason Kingsland (Delta Spirit, Deerhunter), Sam Burchfield's sixth album is his most stripped-down and spirit-forward to date. The songs came together during a momentous new phase of fatherhood, a reckoning with changing priorities, and a beautiful submission to a steadier, rooted life.
“Just before we recorded, I was in New York City on tour,” Burchfield shares. “My wife was at home, pregnant with our second child. I was taking a walk through Washington Square Park, feeling this hyper-vivid awareness of the beauty of the city, and at the same time, this intense pain of being away from my family.” Just then, a man sitting at a public space piano began playing the song Burchfield’s partner walked down the aisle to at their wedding. Coincidence or cosmic wink, it stirred Burchfield’s soul. “It felt like walking through a portal.”
For Burchfield, like many of us, it took a moment of poignant distance to illuminate his place of utmost belonging—back in the Blue Ridge Mountains, among his family. And with that radical clarity came a revitalized artistic confidence, a turning point in accepting and trusting his own musical intuition, the intuition from which Nature Speaks beautifully emerges. Read the full bio here.
Today’s release follows recent singles “Spirit of the Night,” “Stay (Betty Blue)” and “Holiday,” and “Make Change.”’ Burchfield's career has spanned countless national tours, critical praise from The Bluegrass Situation and Creative Loafing among others, and opening slots for the likes of CAAMP, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, David Shaw of The Revivalists and more. Burchfield will share the new music on tour this fall; shows are detailed below.
TRACKLIST
1. Spirit of the Night
2. Make Change
3. Close
4. Stay (Betty Blue)
5. Holiday
6. Desert Springs
7. Nature Speaks
8. Morning Light
TOUR DATES
Sep 27 || Fernandina Beach, FL @ Tigre Island Room
Oct 16 || Carrboro, NC @ Cat's Cradle
Oct 17 || Charlottesville, VA @ United States
Oct 18 || Washington, DC @ The Hamilton Live
Oct 19 || Nashville, TN @ The Basement East
Oct 23 ||Travelers Rest, SC @ Harvest Market Food Truck Rally & Music Fest
Oct 25 || Savannah, GA @ Isle Of Hope Art and Music Festival
Nov 14 || Fort Collins, CO @ Aggie Theatre
Nov 15 || Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
