Nashville-based powerhouse Kashena Sampson has unveiled the title track of her forthcoming LP, Ghost Of Me, out on October 3. In their premiere, Chorus.fm described “Ghost Of Me” as having “a psychedelic-indie folk rock sound that is sure to leave you breathless.” “Besides being a musician, I have also been a bartender at a music venue for the past 10 years to pay my bills. It’s a great job, but there are some nights that feel like my heart is breaking,” Sampson told Chorus.fm. “Watching others live out the exact dream I’m still chasing, night after night. Having to put a smile on my face and serve industry people who’ve passed on me can be rough, and I can get real down on myself about it sometimes. ‘Ghost Of Me’ is about those moments. The times when I question my worth, and the internal struggle of not being where I would like to be in my music career,” she added. “It’s about not giving up on my dreams even though at times it feels like it’s killing me.”
Kashena Sampson. – Photo by Jon Karr
“Stuck in the same place, same routine,” she sings, 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. “Ghost Of Me” follows lead single, “Rearview Mirror,” a song born of intuition and shadow work, a spiritual shake-up designed to clear the path for truth. The ethereal video for “Rearview Mirror” was filmed and directed by Josh Shoemaker.
Already celebrated by Rolling Stone for “evoking the best of Seventies folk,” Sampson turns a new page with her third record. Produced by Grammy-nominated musician, producer, and composer Jon Estes, Ghost Of Me is a psychedelic folk-rock album that pulls up Sampson’s Americana roots and digs deep beneath the surface, uncovering the darker indie sounds that once provided the soundtrack to her childhood. Laced with electric guitar, reverb, and synthesizer, her latest effort offers a new backdrop for the songwriting and otherworldly singing of an East Nashville luminary who’s never sounded more authentic.
Kashena Sampson – Photo by Sammy Hearn
Ghost Of Me is structured like a ritual under the phases of the moon, a cycle of letting go, calling in, and rising again. That arc is felt across both the tracklist and the album’s release timeline, which intentionally aligns key singles and events with lunar milestones. “Rear View Mirror” arrived on July 25, just after the July 24 new moon. Built around crashing cymbals and guitarist B.L. Reed’s power chords, the song drives forward with the force of personal reckoning. The title track, lands in time for new moon intention-setting on August 23, embracing the theme of transformation at the heart of the record. On September 19, “Phases” emerges ahead of a rare September 21 convergence of the solar eclipse, new moon, and International Day of Peace, a moment echoed in the song’s psychedelic swirl and lunar howl. September 22 is the Fall Equinox, bringing with it a powerful time of reflection, growth, and new beginnings. The full album will be unveiled on October 3, just ahead of the full moon on October 6, which culminates the record’s lunar journey.
Ghost Of Me spans genres, emotional depths, and astrological tides. “This is an album about ignoring the bullshit and doing what’s authentic to me,” she explains. “Forget the rat race. Forget the bad relationships. Forget trying to please everybody. I’m tired of doing that. I wanted to do something for myself, and that’s what Ghost Of Me became,” she continues. “It’s an album for me.”
On August 31, Sampson will take part in Musicians Corner’s Free Fest series in Nashville.
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