A new album and UK Novem­ber tour for the folk-based artist

Sam Bur­ton is a new name to me, and I was instant­ly cap­ti­vat­ed by his expres­sive, emo­tion-laden vocals on this retro-sound­ing num­ber. Com­fort­ing yet melan­cholic. He has just shared the title-track of his forth­com­ing album Fair­weath­er Friend, set for release on Octo­ber 30 on Cap­tured Tracks.

Fair­weath­er Friend explores the com­fort and uplift you feel with peo­ple you love, and the heart­break that comes with real­is­ing that some things aren’t meant to last. 

Next week, Bur­ton will begin a tour with Aldous Hard­ing in the US. He will then join Wid­owspeak for a UK/EU tour that kicks off Novem­ber 13 in Leeds, UK and includes stops in Dublin, Lon­don, Paris and more. See below for a full run of dates.

Fair­weath­er Friend sees the Pales­tin­ian-Amer­i­can musi­cian at his most con­fi­dent and self assured. The album was announced last month along­side the release of sin­gle I’m a Stranger.

Fair­weath­er Friend began in the wake of a bad car acci­dent while on tour with the band Bur­ton was in dur­ing and post-pan­dem­ic. He and his band­mates were lucky to be alive. Strug­gling with guilt—Burton had been dri­ving at the time, though the acci­dent wasn’t his fault—they bond­ed through a process of heal­ing togeth­er; he was moved by and deeply grate­ful for their love and sup­port. Then the project split. Some rela­tion­ships end­ed, oth­ers start­ed, and Bur­ton left for a series of tours play­ing solo, stripped-down sets for big­ger audi­ences. Back in Los Ange­les, he began writ­ing again.

Says Sam, “Fair­weath­er Friend is the first song I record­ed with my band I had been tour­ing with for the past few years. After we sur­vived the acci­dent we all grew real­ly close and I real­ly want­ed them to be a part of this record. It’s the first song I’ve put on a record that I pro­duced myself with the band and so it was real­ly mean­ing­ful to me.”

Fair­weath­er Friend Track­list­ing and Tour Dates:
1. Fair­weath­er Friend 
2. After Days Slip Away
3. I’m A Stranger 
4. Lilac Man 
5. Tomor­row Takes A Dream To Find
6. Pic­ture Peo­ple 
7. Before Wak­ing 
8. Free Again 
9. Light Gone Away 
10. Start Over
11. Do You Still Know Your Man

UK Tour Dates:
12/11 – Leeds, UK – Brun­denell Social Club ^
13/11 – Dublin, IE – Work­mans Club ^
15/11 – Glas­gow, UK – The Rum Shack ^
16/11 – Man­ches­ter, UK – YES (Pink Room) ^
17/11 – Lon­don, UK – Scala ^
18/11 – Lile, FR – La Bulle ^
19/11 – Paris, FR – LeP­op­Up! ^
^ sup­port­ing Widowspeak

Sam Bur­ton Fair­weath­er Friend, release date Octo­ber 30, 2026.