Sam Zucker – “Ashwood Road”

Sam Zucker’s “Ashwood Road” hits you because it’s clearly personal. After his mother died, Sam and his siblings had to sell the house they grew up in, a place their family called home for fifty years. He wrote this song with his nephew Sam and musician Sabrina Movitz to help process that double loss.

The song is about that difficult balance of trying to move forward while not letting go of the people and places that shaped you and it’s one of the best songs I’ve heard this week so far.

Sam took inspiration from singer-songwriters who don’t hide behind fancy metaphors, and that directness comes across here. The acoustic, folk sound keeps things stripped down and intimate, which works for a song this vulnerable. He originally tried finding other songs about grief to help him but eventually realized he needed to write his own story. The result is a song about a specific address, specific people, and a very specific kind of loss that still manages to feel relatable.

Check out “Ashwood Road” and make sure to follow Sam Zucker on social media to see what he puts out in the new year.