Sam Burchfield has always had a voice that moves mountains, soulful, smoky, and steeped in a warm, Georgia croon that insists on telling a story. Follow-up single “Make Change” sees the South Carolina-raised singer pushing himself further than he’s ever gone before with a song questioning life’s path that’s not afraid to pull punches, instead leveling you with a focused stare.
This song from his new album is a reflection on fear, mortality, and the inevitability of change. It’s about those times when the weight of change is too much, when death feels too close, when questions about meaning come knocking louder than ever before. But instead of looking the other way, Burchfield looks into it more closely. “Make Change” is his invitation to us to do the same, to sit with the confusion and heartbreak, to get our hands dirty with the unknown, and to stare in and through comfort.
Hailing from the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Burchfield’s music reflects the folk honesty, gospel harmonies, and Southern soul of his heritage, as well as a profound reverence for singer-songwriters like James Taylor, John Mayer, and David Ramirez. That lineage shines through here. The song sounds timeless, as if it could be sung around a campfire generations ago. Still, it has a strong contemporary resonance in a world where distraction is ubiquitous and anything that scares us comes too easily suppressed.
What sets “Make Change” apart is its quality of openness and determination. Burchfield doesn’t shy away from the hard stuff. He confesses that he’s scared of death, scared of what lies beyond, scared of change for change’s sake. But threaded throughout the melody is the gentle insistence that these fears aren’t the final word. Transformation, though daunting, is necessary. Courage, though costly, is possible.