Quality Americana

Sam Lewis just released Everything’s Fine, a wonderful folk album on Loversity Records. The album is peaceful and thoughtful, and shows how hard Lewis has worked to build his craft while making his way in Nashville and touring the world. 

“Chase The Moon,” comes with a music video of his neighborhood in Tennessee, and live shots from the 5 Spot. It’s the lead single from his seventh studio album.

Nashville

We caught up with Lewis while he was on tour in “jolly old” England.

“I’ve been in Nashville since ‘09,” Lewis said.

He grew up in Asheboro, North Carolina where he picked up guitar in his teenage years.

“I pulled it out when I first started hearing Dylan and folk music stuff,” Lewis said. “By the time I was twenty one I started writing songs and never really stopped.” 

Lewis spoke about being influenced by the 90’s grunge era early on and the beauty of Nirvana’s Unplugged album. He’s  found an audience that is “strictly grassroots,” as his music isn’t made for the country/rock radio charts that stars compete for in Music City.

“I invest in my fans, and listeners,” Lewis said. “I placate to them more than, I think, the industry. I’m really lucky.” 

Lewis meets his audience on the road, as he typically only performs a handful of shows in Nashville every year.

“I knew long ago this is a long game, and I just was told at a young age that ‘if you’re going to do this, you really need to write and record music that you actually want to listen to,’ and I took that seriously,” Lewis said. “I still feel like I’m a developing artist even though I’ve been doing this for twenty years.”

Chase The Moon

Lewis wanted the album to be sparse, and worked with Joe McMahan to focus on the beauty in the melodies.

“He did a great job just restraining from adding things that you can hear,” Lewis said about the lack of drums. “He’s pretty punk in respects of not doing things the typical way, and I think he did a fantastic job really letting just the spirits of the songs be right there with you.”

Everything’s Fine comes back to Lewis’ folk roots, as his previous album was a sonic departure from his traditional sound.

“I come from the John Prine school,” Lewis said. “He was one of the first writers after Dylan that I really felt more at home with. I felt more like ‘this is the voice that I hear in my head.’ I just kind of sat with these thoughts and really just tried to spin in a way of how maybe would John say this.” 

Lewis has also found inspiration from other country heroes like Willie Nelson. He spoke about how difficult it can be to write songs, and how some of his favorite artists are known for recording other’s works. 

“Ray Charles and Willie Nelson, it doesn’t really get any better than that, and look at their catalog,” Lewis said. “They just recorded really good songs because they were really good songs, and I think that’s a testament. I’d like to see more of that.”

The final song on “Chase The Moon” is a cover from Indigo Girls.

“It’s a song that I tried to write for years,” Lewis said about ‘Three County Highway.’ “It’s one of the first songs I heard when I moved to Nashville. I’ve played it out a few times, and a lot of people thought I wrote it… I’m just kind of shepherding that along. I try to write in some type of universal way, but there’s just sometimes where ‘this song is already saying it for me, why should I try to write a version of it?’” 

Nick Lowe

“Nothing Could Break Us Apart” is another standout from the album. Lewis was asked by his sister to perform at her wedding, and finished the song in her honor.

“I started writing that song after Joe McMahan had dropped The Convincer by Nick Lowe on me,” Lewis said. “I felt like I was pretending that Nick Lowe was my teacher and I needed to turn in what I learned.” 

McMahan played a beautiful jazz solo on the track that added to the mood.

“We played that live,” Lewis said. “That’s a one-take. I try to record live as much as possible.”

Everything’s Fine was recorded at Wow and Flutter Studio in Nashville with Chris Carmichael on strings, JT Cure on bass, Derek Mixon on drums, Judy Blank on vocals and Josh Hunt on bongos.

Support the Artist

More information about Sam Lewis can be found here.

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