Sam Burton signs to Captured Tracks and announces third solo album, Fairweather Friend

Fairweather Friend is Burton's first full-length release since 2023's Dear Departed, produced by Jonathan Wilson (Father John Misty, Conor Oberst), who has also co-produced the new collection of songs.

Lead single "I'm A Stranger" offers the first taster of Fairweather Friend. Speaking about the track, Burton says: "The song sits somewhere between nostalgia and alienation. It's more of a feeling than a statement. There is no home to go back to."

Fairweather Friend first came together in the wake of a car accident while on tour with Burton's band during and post-pandemic. While he and his bandmates healed together, the project split. Burton left for a series of solo tours playing stripped-down sets for bigger audiences. When he decided to start writing again, he spent months in Northern California completing nearly half the songs on the new album. "I think a lot of things were changing, including the way LA used to feel for me when I was young and I felt like I could do anything," he says. "Now, it felt like certain doors were closing. But the growth was inspiring to me."

"I'm really just doing this because I have a compulsion to do it," Burton adds. "And I have found wholeness — or something that felt like wholeness — doing it my whole life."

Burton will tour North America this autumn with Aldous Harding, beginning 9 September in Philadelphia, before joining Widowspeak for a UK/EU tour from 13 November in Leeds following the album's release.

Fairweather Friend artwork

Fairweather Friend tracklist

"Fairweather Friend"
"After Days Slip Away"
"I'm A Stranger"
"Lilac Man"
"Tomorrow Takes A Dream To Find"
"Picture People"
"Before Walking"
"Free Again"
"Light Gone Away"
"Start Over"
"Do You Still Know Your Man"