SAM WILSON

SOWING SPRING

Independent Label

Sam Wilson, guitar; Hayley Ryerson, fiddle; Nicola Miller, alto saxophone/bass clarinet); Kyle Tully, bass; Caito Macdonald, drums.

The acoustic guitar has such a pure, lovely tone.  Matched with Hayley Ryerson’s bowed fiddle, a song titled “The Dry” rolls off of Sam Wilson’s new album called “Sowing Spring.” It introduces me to an unusual mix of genres, including a blend of chamber jazz and folk music.

“Rosedale” is a melodic original composition with a rhythm that flows like the Magaguadavic River in New Brunswick, Canada.  It was on those shores that Sam Wilson’s songs were born, during a week-long residency along those riverbanks. That’s where Sam witnessed the water’s complete transformation from ice to liquid during fool’s spring. Tully’s bass opens the tune with power and drive.

There is a folksiness about these songs wrapped inside the simplicity and beauty of acoustic music. This arrangement invites the bass clarinet of Nicola Miller to solo and improvise above the rhythmic guitar pulse that Wilson plays. Her album explores several instrumental combinations, featuring alternately, the fiddle, alto saxophone and bass clarinet as companion voices to her guitar. The bass and drums provide a warm foundation.

I hear the soul of Sam Wilson’s music.  It reflects open spaces and running waters. On a tune called “Coneflower,” that is a long stemmed flower that looks like a daisy, the fiddle dances atop Wilson’s repetitive rhythm guitar.  Her notes are plucked individually, like flowers bobbing in a field of color. Her original music moves like waves in the water and washes over my listening room.

During a song called “Waxing Crescent” the bass clarinet of Nicola Miller growls like a sleeping bear slowly awakening and stretching its powerful voice across the universe. The Wilson style of plucking the guitar strings alive with rhythm, but singularly, supports the moment.

Her acoustic guitar closes this album with “Flowerbones” featuring Kyle Tully’s bass lines sliding through the melody like a ribbon in the breeze.

This is hybrid jazz, that blends jazz improvisation with folk music and contemporary music, sharing raw acoustic innovation, creating moments of sweetness, like raw honey on the tongue. This album will be available to the public on October 14, 2026.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

Subscribe to Our Newsletter