Sam Robbins – Fingerpickin’ Good

In early 2023, Robbins was gifted Marcus Aurelius’s “Meditations”, a collection of the Roman Emperor’s diaries in the early 100’s AD. The ideas from this book, centered around the concepts of stoicism, seeped into the songs of So Much I Still Don’t See Much of the album reflects on the inner peace found through stoic philosophy that was discovered in reading this book throughout the past year on the road. 

The light, upbeat Buddy Holly sound of “All So Important” works hand in hand with the lyrics, which are a meditation on this philosophy, and the sense that we are all just grains of sand in a larger universe. Verse lyrics such as “A bronze bust of a Roman ruler, emperor of everywhere the sun could shine/ thought his name would live on forever/but now you can only read it if you squint your eyes” are followed by a simple repetition of the sarcastic chorus, “it’s all so, all so important”.

Another influence on the songwriting of So Much I Still Don’t See is Robbins’ work with the group Music Therapy Retreats. This is the first recording made after starting his work with the organization, which pairs songwriters with veterans to help write their often unheard and inspiring stories into songs. This life changing and life-affirming experience has drawn out deeper emotions and deeper stories in Robbins’ own writing and music, inspired by the open hearts and stories of the veterans he is lucky to work with.

The final moment of So Much I Still Don’t See  is a quiet, serene moment with Halley Neal, nationally touring singer songwriter and Robbins’ fiancé. The two have led separate careers after meeting at Berklee College of Music, coming together when the moment is right. As the tenth and final track, the soft, one-take, one-mic cover of The Beatles’ “I Will” was recorded on the last day of recording on a cheap nylon string guitar found in the corner of the studio. The short and sweet love song is a simple finish on the introspective and warm album, spotlighting the true spirit of So Much I Still Don’t See  – calmness and simplicity, always looking forward to the future. 

The first single off the album, “What a Little Love Can Do” is a song that captured a moment. Sitting in Nashville after hearing the news of a shooting in the city, Robbins sat alone with his guitar and strummed. Living in the heart of a red state, far away from his New England home, the events of the day made the cracks appear clearer than he’d ever seen them. The first lyrics that appeared in that moment are the first lyrics in the song – “It’s gonna be a long road when we look at where we started, one nation broken hearted, always running from ourselves”. The heaviness of the news of the day, and the news of every day since, has not subsided since this song was written in 2023. 

What led from that lyric was a flow-state writing process. A story of the learning and connections built from Robbins’ travels across the US on tour, driving over 100,000 miles in two years, playing hundreds of shows and meeting thousands of people from very different backgrounds. 

From Birmingham to Detroit, New Orleans to Los Angeles, Boston to Denver, this song was unknowingly written as the culmination of the lessons learned from these adventures. The depth of connection found when we are physically with one another, when we can talk and laugh and truly see each other, is at the heart of “What a Little Love Can Do”, and the album as a whole. 

In this song, this idea is felt clearly in lyrics such as “I’ve seen the lights shine through closed windows/ down dirt roads in Kentucky and New York City moons too”, and “I know that love means most when it’s right in front of me/ but I look around and I can’t find it in the papers/ I can’t see it on my screens but I see it in you”

The verse and pre-chorus lyrics lead to a simple, Motown-inspired chorus. “I’m gonna reach out to you, I’m gonna reach out to you/ show em’ what a little love can do, show em what a little love can do”. At first, this was a placeholder lyric. As the song was built around it however, it became clear that this lyric was truly the piece that held the entire song together.

The sonic landscape of “What a Little Love Can Do” is unique on the album – it is the only song that begins with a stark, soft piano moment, played gently by Seth Glier. The interweaving of piano and acoustic guitar on this track are indicative of Robbins’ live shows and sonic sensibilities as a whole. Bringing together the warmth of the guitar, piano and Sam’s own warm lead vocal, “What a Little Love Can Do” is the perfect kickoff to his third album, “So Much I Still Don’t See”

The second single and opening track from So Much I Still Don’t See, the sparkling and introspective “Piles of Sand”, was the first song written for the album. The song was written in Nashville and is, like much of the album, written from a place of simplicity and observation. The unassuming opening lyric, “I’m standing in the sunlight in a public park in Tennessee/ and I know the soft earth below has always made room for me” sets up the song, which blossoms into a humble but strong meditation on the passing of time and the small moment in which each of our lives take place.

This song was written, again like many of the songs on So Much I Still Don’t See, in and about a moment. Walking down a riverside path in Nashville, next to the barbed wire of a prison, watching and feeling gravel being blasted for a high flying condo building across the street was a very inspiring moment. After walking further and seeing a huge pile of gravel soaring high across the street, the first chorus lyric was immediately written down as it appears in the song now: “I thought it was a mountain but it was just a pile of sand/ towering so high, a nine to five creation”. This line and rhythm was a springboard for the rest of the song, steeped in Stoicism, written that afternoon.

As the opening track to the album, the sounds of “Piles of Sand” are built around the stark simplicity of a man and his guitar, the perfect sound to kick off the album. Inspired by the James Taylor live album “One Man Band”, only sparse piano moments are included throughout the song, setting the stage for an album that showcases Robbins’ stunning guitar work and fresh, clear songwriting voice.

The third single from So Much I Still Don’t See, the Chet Atkins-inspired, upbeat “The Real Thing”, is the second track on the album and an example of the varied energy across the collection of ten songs. “The Real Thing” began with a lyrical groove – driving out of a certain American city on tour, thousands of miles from home, with a 12 hour drive ahead, the spark of inspiration hit. The groove of the first line, “I’m sailing smooth highway under soft suburb lights/ where an Applebee’s oversees every corner” led to the rest of “The Real Thing” being written all in one night at a hotel in the middle of nowhere, USA. The song is a lighter take on the existential questions present throughout the album. Diving into questions of environmentalism, man’s place in the world, and the writer’s place in the world, “The Real Thing” is the upbeat kickoff to the soft, cutting, inquisitive “So Much I Still Don’t See”. 

Sonically, “The Real Thing” is a tribute to one of Robbins’s main influences on guitar, the great fingerstyle player Chet Atkins. With Chet’s signature thumping thumb technique, Robbins built a sonic palette that utilized this classic sound but twisted it with his own modern take. The thumping, western-style groove emulates the vibe of the lyrics – the quintessentially American feeling of driving fast down a dusty highway, to get to anywhere but where you are.

The title track from So Much I Still Don’t See  is a clear-eyed, clear-voiced song centering around moments in Robbins’ life and upbringing in New Hampshire as a white man. The song’s soft, lulling and meditative refrain “there’s so much I still don’t see”, sung throughout, is the tie that holds the theme together. 

The story starts at the first verse with a chance meeting at the grocery store with an older black woman in Tennessee who was visibly thrilled to be buying a black Disney princess doll for her granddaughter. This chance encounter made Robbins think back on the media representation that he had experienced growing up –  and as a telling sign, there was nothing to think on. White men were everywhere, the dominant identity represented and therefore there was no need to ever think about representation. This is shown in the next verse’s lyrics “I grew up on the classics, tales of heroes and love/ a pale ocean reflecting what I could become”.

The final verse of “So Much I Still Don’t See” is the clearest manifestation of the smaller stories heard throughout the rest of the song. “I thought I’d read Martin Luther King and learned about the Civil War/ but it all seemed so distant, so hard to believe in the million little string connecting them to me/ oh there’s so much I still don’t see”. The subtle twist of the central lyric is signature to Robbins’ writing, and contributes to the soft but cutting messaging in the song.

Recognition is the first step towards change, and “So Much I Still Don’t See” was written as a quiet meditation of a political song. It is not a preaching, finger pointing manifesto. It is a clear, soft and inward-facing track, meant as a moment of reflection for the writer and listener.

The sounds of “So Much I Still Don’t See” reflect the lulling meditation of the lyrics and message – ringing open acoustic guitar strings, swirling, warm chords that pair with Robbins soft, inviting vocal guide the listener into the world of the song, and with it, into their own stories and histories. “So Much I Still Don’t See” acts as the anchor to the album of the same name, the core song of the ten, and the most representative of Robbins’ clear-eyed, earnest and fresh songwriting voice.