Sam Burton shares his inner-Walden on ‘I Don’t Blame You’, taken from his upcoming album ‘Dear Departed’.
Before Sam Burton‘s stunning 2020 Tompkins Square album I Can Go With You, he released a 2016 cassette titled Until Returning, which sounded like a lost tape recording of Tim Buckley or Jackson C. Frank. In an interview around that release, and taking a line from Bob Dylan, he said he was making music he wanted to hear. He seems to have stuck to that premise since, and there’s no denying that Burton is something of a master when it comes to projecting that inner world through his songs.
On his new single, ‘I Don’t Blame You‘, those beloved retro stylings extend to the accompanying video, which Sam edited himself and Co-Directed with his old pal Nick Neihart. They nail it beautifully, right down to the font on the opening titles…add to that Burton’s velvet-lined vocals and some beautiful harmonies, and you have another winner.
While the past may inform his music, he conjures something more modern that also offers a cathartic release from the everyday chaos of our fast-paced lives. We all need our inner Walden, and Burton found his in Northern California.
Burton says: “This song was one that stuck out to me when I was writing the songs for this record. I felt like I found a hypnotic rhythm that transported me and it felt inspired by the landscape that I was staying in. I started to see imagery in my mind and I tried to capture the spirit of it. This song brings me back to that place in Northern California and makes me see the forest and the rivers. I think it’s so important for a writer to have an inner world they can go back to to reconnect with themselves and this song revealed that place to me.”
Also, our Song of the Day, ‘I Don’t Blame You,’ is taken from the Los Angeles-based singer’s upcoming album ‘Dear Departed’ (out July 14th via Partisan).
Burton has also confirmed a run of headline west coast and international dates, including the End of the Road Festival in the UK later this summer. In the last year, Burton has toured with Loving, Jose Gonzalez, Weyes Blood, and Indigo Sparke, and in January, he completed a three-week residency at LA club TeeGee.
Sam Burton European tour dates:
31/08 – 03/09: End of The Road Festival, UK
6/9 Brussels, BE Botanique (Witloof Bar)
7/9 Paris, FR l’International
8/9 Haldern, DE Haldern Pop Bar
9/9 Berlin, DE Monarch
10/9 Amsterdam, NL Paradiso (Upstairs)
12/09 – Manchester, UK Gullivers
13/09 – London, UK St Pancras Old Church
14/09 – Bristol, UK Crofters Rights
Tickets from https://samburtonmusic.com/tour
Dear Departed is out on July 14th via Partisan Records: https://samburton.lnk.to/deardeparted