Sam Burton playing at Chalk in Brighton next week

“Maria” is the first taste of Burton’s upcoming album, ‘Dear Departed‘, which was produced by Jonathan Wilson (Angel Olsen, Father John Misty, Margo Price) at his Topanga Canyon studio with some of the best studio players in LA.

 The album won’t be announced until early April, but this mid-album highlight perfectly showcases Burton’s knack for mining pure Laurel Canyon AM gold. Pastoral string arrangements bloom in the background of Sam’s striking honeyed vocals – like a modern-day Campbell, Orbison, or Nilsson.

Together, Wilson and Burton achieved a sound that doesn’t descend into retro pastiche, but rather becomes an evocative echo, a dream of the past. In scope, it finds Burton using a far bigger canvas than on his acclaimed 2020 debut ‘I Can Go With You‘, giving the emotions therein a new sense of urgency and intensity.

In Sam’s own words: “‘Maria’ is a song of brief redemption. It’s seeing a shape in the soft light and trusting it’s there even though it’s not defined.”