Kevin Bronson on May 25th, 2023

0

Three gorgeous songs, three videos set in the great outdoors: Hear and watch the latest from Jess Williamson, Anna St. Louis and Sam Burton, who, coincidentally, have album-release shows coming up …

JESS WILLIAMSON, “Time Ain’t Accidental”

“Time Ain’t Accidental” is the title track to Texas-born, L.A.-based songwriter Jess Williamson’s fifth full-length, out June 9 via Mexican Summer. It promises to be a page-turner emotionally, judging from this and the previous singles, “Chasing Spirits” and “Hunter.” You’ll either be crying in your beer or raising your glass. The video, directed by Rocco Rivetti, was shot outside of Marfa, Texas. “That specific stretch of highway is really special to me, because when I was working on the record I would go on long walks down this empty road listening back to my mixes and working out the album sequence. When I’m out there alone I feel like the only person inside of a vast painting, it’s surreal, and I wanted to share that feeling with the world,​” Williamson says. Of the song, she adds: “​The lyrics ​to ‘Time Ain’t Accidental​’​ ​came pouring out of me because i​t’​s the true story of a very special day when I was falling in love with the person who is now my partner. The chorus references a Raymond Carver book of short stories I was reading at the time, and to me the song itself feels like a short story.” Jess Williamson will play Zebulon on June 17 (tickets) and will perform at the BeachLife Ranch Festival (info) in Redondo Beach on Sunday, Sept. 24.

ANNA ST. LOUIS, “Better Days”

Don’t be deceived by the weepy guitar in “Better Days.” They’re coming, Anna St. Louis assures us. The song is the second single from her sophomore album, “In the Air,” out June 9 from Woodsist. Hers is an optimism borne of quietude, the kind you find in the solitude of nature — where the video for “Better Days” casts the folk singer and her gorgeously plaintive vocals. St. Louis made the album in 2021 with producer Jarvis Taveniere (Purple Mountains, Woods); collaborators included Jess Williamson, Kacey Johansing, Oliver Hill (Kevin Morby, Vagabon) on strings, Alex Fischel (Spoon) on piano, Josh Adams on drums (Bedouine, Tim Heidecker) and Keven Lareau (Cut Worms, Hand Habits). Anna St. Louis plays Gold-Diggers on June 23.

SAM BURTON, “I Don’t Blame You”

The follow-up to “Long Way Around” and “Maria,” “I Don’t Blame” is the latest heart-stopper from Sam Burton’s album “Dear Departed,” produced by Jonathan Wilson and out July 14 via Partisan Records. “This song was one that stuck out to me when I was writing the songs for this record,” Burton says. “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.” Indeed, it’s a piece of musical cinema reminiscent of “Gentle on My Mind.” Sam Burton plays album-release shows at Gold-Diggers on July 14 (tickets) and July 15 (tickets.)