Kashena Sampson – Rearview Mirror
Nashville-based siren Kashena Sampson unveils “Rearview Mirror,” the lead single and video from her forthcoming LP, Ghost Of Me, set for release on October 3.
The song, co-written with friend and fellow Nashville songcrafter Caroline Spence, is a mirror for those moments when clarity only comes after the fact, once the moonlight has touched the shadows. Kashena says shadow work is one of the most sacred parts of her spiritual path, sitting with the parts of herself she once tried to bury, and learning to listen when her intuition whispers…or screams. She was in a co-writing session that left her really unsettled and scattered, but she couldn’t fully understand why until later that night. “That’s often how my intuition speaks, subtle in the moment, clear only in hindsight,” she explains. “As I sat with the discomfort, the first line came through: ‘I only see it in the rearview mirror.’ The whole experience reminded me of the Death card in Tarot,” she continues. “Not an ending, but a transformation. A spiritual shake-up designed to clear the path for truth. The next day, I brought that line to Caroline. We wrote the song in about an hour. It just flowed.”
Kashena’s sound has often drawn comparisons to Stevie Nicks – in this new album, she summons her childhood influences, like Mazzy Star, Kate Bush, and the Pixies, resulting in a folk rock-meets-dark pop extravaganza. Besides it being an incredible listen, the coolest part is that the album and single releases are structured like a ritual under the phases of the moon, a cycle of letting go, calling in, and rising again. For example, “Rear View Mirror” arrives just after the July 24 new moon.
Kashena Sampson turns a new page with her third record, Ghost Of Me. It’s a psychedelic folk-rock album that pulls up her Americana roots and digs deep beneath the surface, uncovering the darker indie sounds that once provided the soundtrack to Kashena’s childhood. Laced with electric guitar, reverb, and synthesizer, Ghost Of Me offers a new backdrop for the songwriting and otherworldly singing of an East Nashville luminary who’s never sounded more authentic.
“Stuck in the same place, same routine,” Sampson sings during the album’s title track, before a swell of gorgeous, nocturnal noise — full of swooning keyboards and atmospheric guitars, like a long-lost Roy Orbison classic reborn for a film noir soundtrack — darkens the sky and alters the weather. This is, in fact, anything but the same routine. Sampson may have earned comparisons to Stevie Nicks with records like 2017’s Wild Heart and 2021’s Time Machine, but here, she sounds like her own witchy woman.
Sampson recorded Ghost Of Me with producer Jon Estes, drummer Tom Myers, and guitarist B.L. Reed. She’d already worked with Estes on her previous records, creating an Americana sound that nodded to her Nashville surroundings while still exploring new territory. This time, though, she wanted to move in a different direction, exploring textures that blurred the lines between genre and generation. “I wanted to incorporate more rock influences I grew up listening to,” she says. “My first two records were full of Americana and country songs, because that’s what I was surrounded by in Nashville, but I grew up listening to Beck, Bjork, the Violent Femmes, Nirvana, and the Pixies.”
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