Shortly before he recorded his new LP, Nature Speaks (Cloverdale), Sam Burchfield was finishing up a tour in New York City with a pregnant wife back home in Georgia.
“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,” says Burchfield.
Just then, Burchfield heard the first notes of “Clair De Lune” coming from a street performer at a public piano—the same song played at his wedding ceremony as his partner walked down the aisle. “It felt like walking through a portal,” says the Seneca, S.C., native.
Available Friday, Nature Speaks is the aural equivalent of an extended journey through that portal. Working quickly with co-producers Ryan Plumley and Jason Kingsland (Delta Spirit, Deerhunter) over five days at Studio 1093 in Athens, Ga., Burchfield distills his far-flung alt-country sound to its rugged upcountry essence and reanimates it with an unabashed spiritual force.
To that end, the ethereal “Spirit Of The Night” acts as a both a teaser and a mission statement. “Though we sometimes fear the night and the natural world, what we find is a divine spirit that beckons us into a playful celebration of life itself,” says Burchfield, articulating the essence of the track. “God is found not in the comfort of our insulated rooms, but in the discomfort and excitement of exploring of the world around us—drawn forward when we listen to the intuition that calls us.”
We’re proud to premiere Sam Burchfield’s “Spirit Of The Night.”
—Hobart Rowland
See Sam Burchfield live.
