Album: Signs of Life
Label: Big Dolphin Energy
Release date: November 20, 2021
“I always wanted to make a record that would live in somebody else’s world the way a Joni Mitchell record does in mine,” says Sarah Buxton about her new EP, Signs Of Life. “I always felt like Joni Mitchell and Stevie Nicks were my older sisters, walking with me, lifting my chin up and saying, ‘You got this.’”
While Buxton may not be a household name just yet, she’s long established that kind of musical relationship with a hilariously long list of Nashville’s most popular and prolific artists, contributing her songs and her voice, oftentimes together, to records from the likes of Miranda Lambert, Dierks Bentley, Harry Connick Jr., Blake Shelton, Keith Urban, Martina McBride, and many others. On November 20th, Buxton will share her voice and her songs with the world with the release of Signs Of Life, her first solo album in almost a decade.
This week, Buxton released the EP’s first single, “Some Things Don’t Change,” a pulsing, groovy pop tune-meets-commentary on the reciprocal nature of humanity. “Every time there’s a new style, old folks say it’s too wild. It was better in the way back when. People talkin’ in the new slang, different way to say the same thing. Yeah, that’s how it’s always been.”
“I feel like a huge theme in my life is learning how to love myself, listen to myself, observe myself, and accept myself,” says Buxton. “I used to have people I would go to for answers, but now, I’m trying to lean a little bit more on my own intuition.” Her intuition is the heart of this new collection of songs, beating deeply and freely, open and honest. For Buxton, Signs of Life is part of a bigger commitment to holding on to what matters and letting go of what we thought we needed but don’t. “It takes courage to grow younger in your heart as you’re getting older, and to not just close off,” Buxton says. “It takes a lot of shedding, too. There is a lot of grief in these songs. It’s been a time of growing up for me—but it’s also a return to who I was.”
Whether writing songs or making music, a common thread of giving, receiving, and growing weaves throughout her work. “Pleasure, fun, and connecting with people—that’s when I make the best music, and when I’m the most happy,” she says. Recorded at Daniel Tashian’s studio—Tashian is also Buxton’s bandmate in Nashville’s beloved songwriter supergroup Skyline Motel along with Kate York and Ian Fitchuk—Signs of Life is a gorgeous product of the balance Buxton has mastered; chemistry with brilliant friends in support of her own confident vision. Tashian and Fitchuk contributed their part to the multi-instrumentalist chemistry along with a host of A-list musicians, including Buxton’s husband, session guitar wizard, Tom Bukovac.
The amalgamation of all of Buxton’s qualities is what makes her light shine so bright; her magnetic thoughtfulness, honesty, perspective, and songcraft. When they all meet in a room with instruments and microphones and the tape starts rolling, that’s when the lightning gets bottled to share with the world. The result, Signs Of Life, is sure to find the home with listeners as Buxton dreamed up; integral and ubiquitous in their every day like her Joni or Stevie. “Instead of being the artist’s, the song becomes yours when you listen to it—your song about your life.”
Signs Of Life Tracklisting:
Some Things Don’t Change
Only The Truth
Signs of Life
Like I Need You
By Myself
Little Bit Better
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