By Scott LaBarbera
Joe Sampson
Chansons de Parade
On the fourth track of Joe Sampson’s latest album, the celebrated Denver songwriter moans “I’m off to a land to sing all day, sing my baby, she’s gone away.” As dour as this lyric may come across, it created a landscape in my mind of a perfect Colorado summer music festival afternoon in a meadow, while me and my lady listen to Sampson croon his perfectly crafted songs in the background. And so it goes with this entire album; Sampson manages to subtly hypnotize you on each track using just his guitar and lush vocal arrangements (occasionally adding some well-timed drums into the mix). Any Denver music fan knows that when Joe Sampson is part of a project (whether as a member of Bad Weather California or collaborator with Esme Patterson and Nathaniel Rateliff) or releases his own music, it is going to be something worth paying attention to.