Ears Wide Open: Sam Valdez

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Sam Valdez
Sam Valdez

The echoes of Laurel Canyon waft through the new single by Sam Valdez, a honey-voiced singer-songwriter from Las Vegas who now calls L.A. home. Right down to its rich lyrical vignettes, “Don’t Want to Be Yours Anymore” is a stunner of a breakup song, and a preview of the forthcoming EP from Valdez, a classically trained violinist who turned to the guitar a couple years ago.

“Don’t Want to Be Yours Anymore” will appear on a forthcoming Native American rights compilation album being released by fledgling L.A. label Pop Cautious Records, proceeds from which will benefit the Native American Rights Fund (NARF). Label head Tyler Porterfield (aka Pop Cautious himself) says the idea for the album was inspired by the events at Standing Rock. But, “the idea to expand the album to go towards Native American rights in general instead of towards primarily Standing Rock was sparked by a political conversation I had with Jon Brion while I was driving Lyft,” he explains.

The compilation will be out in June. Valdez’s EP is tentatively scheduled for a summer release.

||| Stream: “Don’t Want to Be Yours Anymore”