EPK

Biography

Making sense of the chaos of a life is often accompanied by a low-frequency rumble; the kind you can forget is there; the kind you can forget is coloring your every move. With an ebb and flow of outside voices- complete with doubt and reason- circling your own lofty dreams and sense of wonder, the internal dialogue can be constant; loud; debilitating.

“I’ve got this head noise- that I don’t want to live…or die with regrets,” Stephanie Sammons says, describing how, as she moves through an ever-widening range of life experiences, there’s a familiar hum acting as a barometer of her sanity, her joy, her fulfillment.

Head Noise (out August 21), Sammons' sophomore album, touches on the relief that comes with admission, the pain of witnessing addiction’s recurrence, the clarity that only comes with time. Recorded in Nashville, TN, and produced by Mary Bragg (The Accidentals, Grace Pettis), the album’s ten songs are told from the perspective of the eldest daughter of aging parents, step-mother of grown children, wife of a wife, and busy entrepreneur running her own small business. Yet, the songs here earn Sammons’ keep as what she’s always known herself to be– a songwriter.

“Lone Coyote,” begins the examination of these relationships with a “drifter longing to belong,” the story of an adopted orphan, not unlike her own experience- Sammons’ two step-children were adopted. Alongside sweeping pedal steel from Josh Kaler (Jump Little Children, Matthew Perryman Jones), Sammons sings with a clear vulnerability of the space where “outsiders, survivors,” hang in the balance of “the in-between, the something missing.”

For Head Noise, the hero’s journey of the album arrives fully with “Marathon,” where, Sammons explains, “there’s a special kind of endurance where a person can keeprunning through pain and self-erosion; they are built to keep going no matter how many times life knocks them down.” Off and on the wagon, in and out of some semblance ofstability, the painter in the song declares, “I am dusk and I am dawn, running on and on and on- marathon.”

Similarly, in “Tough Love,” Sammons grapples with holding a boundary that feels impossible- not knowing if it’s working and unsure of the outcome. Sammons explains, “When you're in that desperate place of trying to do what’s best for them, but you love them so much, and are also scared to death they’re going to die- How do you hold that line?”

It’s no wonder Sammons’ mind is full of head noise. Her creative processing of these challenging life experiences continues with “Midlife Twilight”, a melancholy song whereshe ponders the heavy but hopeful season of hovering between elderly parents and grown children.

In “More Than You”, Sammons reflects on dealing with the pain felt after being the brunt of someone’s ire- the kind that can only be doled out from someone who knows you very well. “The lesson that I never learned– know when to stop trying. Nobody knows how to hurt me more than you.”

A lifelong learner and lover of the craft of songwriting, Sammons counts Mary Gauthier, Emily Saliers (Indigo Girls), Jonatha Brooke, Beth Nielsen Chapman, and Gretchen Peters among her mentors, along with Mary Bragg, who also produced Sammons’ debut album, 2024’s critically acclaimed Time and Evolution.

Sammons has been described as a singer of subtle emotion. She chooses clarity over clamor and substance over spectacle, with each lyric offering a quiet revelation.

The steadiness of Sammons’ acoustic guitar permeates across textures from lauded Nashville musicians Jordan Perlson (drums), Jon Estes (bass, keys), in addition to Kaler (electric guitars) and Matt Rollings, who joins as pianist on “Tough Love.” Bragg also contributes piano, as well as background vocals.

“Mary has a very thoughtful approach to production,” Sammons says, “the musicality she brings to the table manifests exactly what I imagined the songs to sound like, in many cases without even telling her. She’s very intuitive.”

With her “emotive voice and plainspoken storytelling” (Nashville Scene), Sammons was named winner of both the Kerrville Folk Festival’s New Folk Competition (2026), and the Wildflower Al Johnson Performing Songwriter Contest, while also clinching the People’s Choice Award (2026). She has also been a finalist in Telluride Bluegrass Festival’s Telluride Troubadour Competition (2025, 2026), Songwriter Serenade (2026), and Rocky Mountain Folks Festival Songwriter Showcase (2026).

By the final song, a cover of Shawn Colvin’s “That Don’t Worry Me Now,” Sammons finds a way to quiet her mind, at least temporarily. “The whole experience of becoming connected to others through my songs has been a miracle for me,” she says. “It’s been life changing.”