Canadian singer/songwriter Spencer Burton has had quite a journey as a musician – he began his career in hardcore punk but his country-folk solo efforts have gained quite a bit of attention. As he’s mentioned in interviews he had spent a great deal of his life on the road, travel across Canada. “I rode motorcycles, long and leanly, fell in with the wrong people, drank everything I could to pass the time and put the pain away,” Burton has said about that time, and it’s those experiences that influence his solo work. But it also gives his work an earnest authenticity; the sort of authenticity that brings to mind some of country music’s beloved heroes. 

“Death of Gold,” the latest single off his third solo effort, Don’t Let The World See Your Love is a rather thoughtful and earnest song that feels lived in and true  – the heartache and struggle at the song’s heart comes from a lonely life, traveling under enormous skies with your regrets and dreams as your company, and of struggling under desperate circumstances with your dignity intact. Although the song is serious, the official video which has Burton borrowing money from a dear singer/songwriter friend, Julie Doiron, actually reveals that there’s a playful bit of irony that belies the song’s more serious nature. 

Personally, there were a couple of things that drew me to the song – Burton’s voice reminds me a little bit of George Strait but perhaps more important, the song is quite an example of thoughtful, quietly profound songwriting.