Stephanie Sammons is a two-time Kerrville New Folk Finalist (2024, 2025) and a 2025 Telluride Troubadour Finalist. Her 2024 debut album, Time and Evolution, produced by acclaimed folk artist Mary Bragg, is a tender and deeply introspective exploration of faith, longing, and identity. Praised for its emotional nuance and lyrical clarity, the album marks a compelling entrance into the Americana and folk songwriting landscape.

Sammons has been described as a singer of subtle emotion with a voice that communicates ache without raising its volume. Her delivery is restrained, but never distant—each lyric a quiet revelation. “I feel deeply,” she says, “but I channel it into songs that speak without shouting.” This thoughtful, introspective style reflects her nature as an empath and an introvert—someone who chooses clarity over clamor, and substance over spectacle.

Sammons has studied with some of the most revered songwriters in the Americana and folk world, including Mary Gauthier, Emily Saliers, Jonatha Brooke, Beth Nielsen Chapman, and Gretchen Peters. Their mentorship has shaped her storytelling voice, helping her embrace vulnerability, lyrical precision, and emotional truth.

Her music connects deeply with listeners who value authenticity and quiet strength. Through her songs, Sammons offers a space to reflect, heal, and feel connected, especially for those navigating life’s most personal questions with open hearts.

Sammons’s full-length debut, Time and Evolution, recounts personal growth through melody and narrative. “Life’s mysteries take time to unfold, and everything changes. We can either resist or embrace change.” Produced by Mary Bragg and released in May 2024, the ten-song collection begins with a journey and ends with a reckoning. The album is part teardown of harmful church doctrine and part beautiful homage to the ongoing rediscovery of faith. These songs explore shame, vulnerability, and the complexity of being queer in a conservative, Southern religious culture. Moments of melancholy are balanced by acquiescence, embracing reality in deft, searingly poetic language woven with rich emotional insight.

Producer Mary Bragg, the late Ingrid Graudins, and noted songwriter/Guy Clark collaborator Verlon Thompson are featured on Time and Evolution.  In Sammons’ words,  “Authenticity matters. I don’t want to shrink because I’m worried about what others may think of me. It has taken me years to find the courage to be myself and write the songs that make me feel vulnerable to the core.”