We’re excited to announce the signing of the wonderful Joe Sampson to the Hidden Shoal family of artists. Sampson’s music evokes the comfortably sad acoustic tones of Nick Drake or Leonard Cohen, ornamented with often darkly humorous lyrics, intoned in a soft yet road-worn baritone. A champion of the musical understatement, Sampson creates songs that exude a gently mesmerising beauty.
Since his childhood days singing in his family’s barbershop quartet, up through his years collaborating with celebrated musicians like Nathaniel Rateliff and Esme Patterson, Joe Sampson has steadily sharpened his sound and style, becoming one of Denver’s most celebrated songwriters. Westword named him Songwriter of the Year in 2008, describing his work as “combining the emotional weight of acoustic breakup albums like Beck’s Sea Change or Ryan Adams’ Heartbreaker with an aw-fuck-it humour.”
Joe’s sublime new EP Songs of Delay will see release through Hidden Shoal on the 12th of September, with a single dropping in August. Joe Sampson’s music also joins the Hidden Shoal licensing catalogue and is available for all licensing and publishing needs. Read more here.