“Today, Steal This Track has a very special treat for Reverb readers. If you’ve paid attention to Colorado music — especially Denver music — for any amount of time, you’ve probably heard of Joe Sampson. Though — like the yeti or unicorn of the Denver music community — the singer-songwriter is rarely seen or heard, and yet has achieved mythical status, greatly admired and frequently name-checked as a favorite artist by better-known musicians like Nathaniel Rateliff, Mike Marchant and Erin Roberts of Porlolo and Ending People. After years of only distributing his music to friends on tapes and CD-Rs, Sampson is poised to release his official debut, “Kill Our Friends,” on Denver’s newest record label, Fellow Creature Recordings, and we have a sneak preview for you to steal.
The quiet beauty of Joe Sampson’s music comes from its stark simplicity, haunting textures and dark mystery. His melodies find their way into the listener’s subconscious without ever drawing attention to themselves by being overly catchy. His sonorous baritone is soft and warm, but roughened just enough by life to be vulnerable. His lyrics, though personal and sincere, maintain an inscrutability that deflects easy interpretation, while his spare-yet-skillful guitar work propels each tune with the power of a full band. Whether he’s playing something that fits into a more traditional folk framework or pushing boundaries with his signature chiaroscuro sound, Sampson is an obvious student of the art and craft of songwriting, placing his bridges in just the right places, and knowing when a simple vocal harmony will really drive the point home. Though Sampson has mostly been content to work in the shadows — as bass player for Bad Weather California, as one anonymous half of Wentworth Kersey, and as A Dog Paloma — its exhilarating to see his talent step into the spotlight.
“Kill Our Friends” — initially recorded by fellow local legend Roger Green and polished up by Colin Bricker and Mighty Fine Productions — is deftly produced. Stark and austere when it needs to be, and densely layered when the songs call for it, the album turns songs new and old into legitimate exemplars of the form. Some of the tunes will be familiar to longtime followers of Sampson (and of Wentworth Kersey), but others haven’t seen as much daylight. Though none is more than four minutes in length, each of the 17 tracks packs the meaning and listening satisfaction of much longer compositions into its dense, dark frame. With noteworthy contributions from Green, Julie Davis (of Fairchildren, Bela Karoli and Rateliff’s band), Chris Adolf (of Bad Weather California), Shawn King (of DeVotchKa) and Rateliff — and thanks to the tenacity of Fellow Creatures founders Blake Nicholoff and Jules Bethea (longtime Denver music community supporter and wife of Nathaniel Rateliff) — Sampson finally has a worthy and lasting document of his remarkable body of work.”