For those unaware, Folk-leaning Texan Americana artist Stephanie Sammons blends natural imagery with narrative reflection for her songwriting. Now poised to release her first full-length album, Time and Evolution, Sammons has played Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe and shared stages with some of her favorite artists and mentors, including Mary Gauthier, Jonatha Brooke, and Mary Bragg.

Sammons has previously released two EPs and has been frequenting Nashville for the last seven years to attend Performing Songwriter Creative Workshops, where she has studied with local favorite Mary Gauthier as well as Emily Saliers, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Jonatha Brooke, Suzy Bogguss, Verlon Thompson, and Gretchen Peters.

Her upcoming record was Produced by Mary Bragg at Nashville’s Sound Emporium Studio B and set for release in May 2024. The ten-song collection “begins with a journey and ends with a reckoning—part coming of age, part teardown of harmful church doctrine, part beautiful homage to the ongoing rediscovery of faith,” Stephanie explains.

The songs explore “shame, vulnerability, and the complexity of being queer in a conservative, Southern religious culture,” she adds.

1. Make Me Believe (3:15)
2. Innocence Lost (4:08)
3. Lazarus (4:28)
4. Year of the Dog (3:38)
5. Faithless (4:50)
6. Billboard Sign (4:21)
7. Living and Dying (feat. Mary Bragg) (4:18)
8. Mend (4:14)
9. Grow Up (feat. Verlon Thompson) (5:08)
10. Holding on to Jesus (4:15)

With her songwriting all about sharing her truth and seeking connections, amongst other things, Stephanie’s new recording opens on the jaunty, mid-tempo Make Me Believe and the languishing Innocence Lost and they are followed by the hazy hum that emanates from Lazarus, a countrified ambiance then ebbs through Year of the Dog and then we get the shimmering Faithless.

This dutifully folk-flavored recording continues onward with the intimate storytelling of Billboard Sign and the lonesome wandering of Living and Dying (feat. Mary Bragg), and then we get the free wheeling Mend, the album rounding out on the isolated core within Grow Up (feat. Verlon Thompson), closing on the emboldened Holding on to Jesus.

Stephanie Sammons - Faithless (Official Video)

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