Common Ground is the debut solo album from Los Angeles, USA-based singer, songwriter and poet Sam Stokes. A captivating collection, it confronts her darkest demons and brightest lights over twelve tender tracks.

By Graeme Smith

The album opens with the isolated vocals An Introduction to Light & Love. It’s a powerfully understated start that showcases the expressiveness of Sam’s vocals and her soulful song-writing. A surprise twist gives us a cacophony of noise before we move seamlessly into Fig Tree in a Monastery. Strummed acoustic guitar accompanies Sam’s smooth vocals, and harmonies give us some lovely textures. The two tracks together provide an arresting start.

Who Does Mother Call? gives us some vulnerable, stripped-back blues rock. Release from the Microcosm gets even heavier with some psychedelic sensibilities and plenty of fuzz. Met a Man is wonderfully intimate and rich with storytelling details. Like a Feather is suitably soaring with some awesome use of loud-quiet before title track Common Ground provides a mid-album gem with its gentle classic rock guitar and philosophical lyrics.

Sirens They Call is a wistful number with plenty of visceral imagery in its lyrics. The Sun & The Moon ups the tempo with some bouncy acoustic guitar and characterful vocal delivery. Amuzani is a delicate meditation that combines spoken word with soft singing. Write the Letter is beautifully lilting and has an intergenerational epic of a story. Out to the Meadow closes the album with an expansive, nature-filled folk finale.

Sam Stokes is truly a unique artist and Common Ground is a collection that only she could have written. There is so much of the personal in her stories, but an instant relatability too. The spiritual meets the earthly in Common Ground, and it reminds us that we’re all cohabiting the same planet, and are not all that different after all.

Common Ground comes with a companion piece poetry and lyrics collection in paperback, available on Amazon. You can listen to the album below.