Premiere: David Burchfield clutches to memories & mementos with new song, ‘State to State’

Sometimes, we burn through memories and experiences like we’re stoking a campfire. Other times, we tuck away those that mean more to us in brown paper packages for safe keeping. Indie-folk storyteller David Burchfield places his new song “State to State,” premiering today on B-Sides & Badlands, firmly in the latter thematic box. “The way across the way / From state to state / This one that I / Keep close to me,” he lugs around the intangible ghosts and physical mementos, his knapsack brimming with the past.

“The brown and the green / The way the colors seem,” he then allows bittersweetness to drip from his tongue. “After the spring and before wintertime / I may lose you but these memories are mine.”

“State to State,” the title song to Burchfield’s new album, out June 5, is a page ripped right out of his life. While living in his hometown of Kansas City, the singer-songwriter found himself enamored by a girl in St. Louis. Six months brought “these brief but beautiful connections over a weekend here and there,” he recalls over email. “Once I was passing through with a friend on our way to climb at the Red River Gorge in Kentucky, and I stopped off for a minute to see her.”

“She handed me this packet of lovingly crafted letters and poems all wrapped up in a bow of mustard-colored yarn. Like it says in the song, I tied that yarn around the strap of my climbing bag and brought it with me everywhere I went climbing for several years thereafter,” he continues. “Even though things didn’t work out with us romantically, we’ve stayed friends and she’s still very dear to me. To me, this song is all about how we carry people with us long after time or distance changes the circumstances that brought us together.”

Now in Denver, Burchfield stitches many lyrical shapes into the foundation of his new album, often showing up as embroidered, flowery patterns weathered and worn from time. “State to State” glues the rest of his stories together, weaving from other plaintive snapshots to a near-death collision, and each moment confirms his newest release will surely capture the industry’s attention.

Burchfield’s State to State (produced by Joshua James) is now up for pre-order.

Listen below:

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