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Sammi Accola, a supremely talented Nashville-based singer-songwriter in the Americana vein, has just released a truly gorgeous new album, “A Candle on a Busy Street.” Rife with meaningful storytelling and beautiful vocals, the album feels like the light returning after a gray winter, the candle in the title lighting the way in distressing, confusing, difficult times. Accola has made a start-to-finish masterpiece with this release; each song is a keeper. We sat down with her recently to chat about this moving collection of songs.
Hi, Sammi. Welcome to VENTS! How has 2026 been treating you so far?
It’s been a whirlwind! Started off playing 30A Songwriters Festival–which is truly my favorite weekend of the year! It was my fifth time playing, and there is nothing like having all your songwriting heroes in your hometown and getting to play different “listening rooms” that were your childhood restaurants and old churches.
Also in January, I attended Folk Alliance, a conference for musicians in the folk/Americana space and reconnected with so many friends in the industry. When I got back home to Nashville, an ice storm hit that some people in our community are still recovering from. The year definitely started with a bang and I’m excited for all that’s to come!
You’ve blown us away with your stellar new album called “A Candle on a Busy Street,” which just came out March 27th. What can you tell us about this collection of songs? What inspired you to write and record it?
The record started with “Renaissance” and “Holy Woman” in 2022, and then I was really in this season wrestling some heavy experiences–newly working with women in recovery and grieving the loss of my nephew. The songs live in this questioning, but also hopeful, space. The more I wrote, the more I saw repeated themes and it all really organically fell into place.
This project validated my experiences and emotions, and I decided to record it so that others could also find a safe place in these lyrics and be reminded that they are not alone.
How was the songwriting process for these songs? Did you write them in a short period of time, or over a few years? Did they come easily and did you write them quickly, or was it a slower scenario?
Some of the songs took years of coming back and changing verse lyrics so that the storytelling was just right and specific enough–others fell out in a matter of hours.
One song, “Waiting Room” literally fell from the sky in less than an hour. I lost my nephew on December 7, 2022, and my cowriter, Jack Henry Campbell, and I wrote this just two months after. I have lived a lot of my life avoiding emotions, and this song was born from a kind of cosmic intervention saying, “Sammi, you can’t do that anymore. You have to feel—otherwise, how will you and your family heal from this?” This one is for the real questions we ask, the answers we’ll never have, and the quiet hope that a miracle is coming—it just may not look the way we imagine.
You never know when or how a song will find you, and I think that’s the glorious mystery and rush of the process!
What was it like working on these songs in the studio? What was your favorite part about recording this album? What was the most challenging aspect of the recording process?
It was really important for me to work with women as the authority figures for this project–a musical matriarch of sorts. I wanted to sit in the studio knowing that if I burst out in tears, whoever I was working with would be willing to sit with me and be a source of comfort. Out of true favor, both Latifah Alattas (Moda Spira/Page CXVI) and Lori Chaffer (Waterdeep), who co-produced this record, are beautiful mothers and women who carry both fire and gentleness in the same breath.
At first, it was challenging to make all the pieces work together, because it was two producers, but Lori and Latifah became friends as well through the process, and we made something really beautiful together.
For the recording of “Holy Woman,” I brought in some of my closest friends and most trustworthy singers–Summerlyn Powers, Andriana Seay, and Michelle Raybourn–to form a “mini-choir,” elevating the power of these words that “you can call me anything, but I’m a holy woman” through stacked harmonies. I loved this day!!!! Working with your friends is the best.
I also had incredible studio players—Terence F. Clark, Will Honaker, Juan Solorzano, and Lucas Morton—join on “Mona Lisa,” “Turning the Tables,” and “Beginning of an Apology.” It was the most surreal experience watching these guys walk into the room having never heard the songs before, then chart them after listening to a single demo. So naturally, they transformed the musical landscape into something tender, and at times daunting. I loved seeing these songs I wrote in my house—just on acoustic guitar or piano—find life!
What do you think the overall message is from the songs on this album? What do you hope people take from hearing it?
“A Candle On A Busy Street” is a collection of songs living in the honest tension and middle grounds of life: fear and joy, faith and doubt, justice and injustice, waiting and the now, questions and answers. I hope people find hope. Remembering that we are more than the worst thing that we’ve ever done or that has been done to us.
What kind of a vibe did you have in mind for this collection and how did you achieve that?
It’s heavy. It’s raw. It’s pure. The use of all live instrumentation in the studio and no autotuning cracked notes allows a dialogue of honesty between me, the artist, and you, the listener. Though I think many of the songs sound cinematically beautiful, I hope when people hear the record it is not just a pretty sound, but truly words of power and meaning over their life.
What else do you have on tap for 2026?
I just celebrated my new project with an Album Release Show at The Center for Contemplative Justice in Nashville on Thursday, March 26th with my all-female band! I was incredibly excited to headline the night and to have Meredith Aguirre open.
Fans coming to my shows can expect rich and introspective storytelling, hilarious rambles, pure acoustic music (no background tracks), and the most badass women joining me on stage! Come out if you can and visit my website, sammiaccola.com for more tour dates!
Website: https://sammiaccola.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sammi.accola
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sammiaccola
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sammiaccola
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@sammiaccolaofficial
Album multi-link: https://ffm.to/a-candle-on-a-busy-street
