Some albums announce themselves with urgency. Others arrive the way wisdom does—slowly, after enough living has occurred to make the listening worthwhile. All Is Song, the new record by Northern California duo Misner & Smith, firmly belongs to the latter category.
The album has been six years in the making, conceived in 2017 and shaped in fits, starts, pauses and reckonings. That extended incubation paid off—the songs sound lived with, considered and assured. As the duo (married couple Sam Misner and Megan Smith) puts it, the unexpected stillness of the pandemic gave them “time to pause, breathe and reflect,” allowing the music to become “the most acutely powerful and transformative” work of their career.
That sense of earned clarity came through vividly during their recent in-studio visit, where harmonies landed with the confidence of people who trust the work—and each other. Misner & Smith have been collaborating for more than two decades, a partnership that began not in a rehearsal room but backstage at regional theater productions. They met as actors, performing A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Seagull, and later found musical alignment while working on Woody Guthrie’s American Song.
“We both played music all our lives,” Megan Smith said, recalling the moment things clicked musically. “I started singing harmony to some of Sam’s recordings and kind of fell in love with his ability to write these amazing songs with stories and beautiful melodies.”
Sam Misner describes his songwriting process less as construction than excavation. “Very rarely do I sit down and go, ‘I want to write a song about X, Y and Z,’” he said. “I feel like my job is kind of like a sculptor … scraping away what isn’t necessary to get to the heart of it.”
That philosophy is especially apparent on “Anthem,” one of the album’s standout tracks. The song circles the idea of needing “an anthem all your own,” not for a nation or a team, but simply as a psychic soundtrack to goad oneself onward. “It’s just to kind of keep yourself going,” Misner said. “Especially as artists and creative people.”
“Each of Sam’s songs is like a planet in itself,” Smith added. “When we’re arranging things, it’s about asking what the song needs and how we serve it best.”
That same ethos carries into their live performances, including their upcoming full-band show at HopMonk Sebastopol Friday, Jan. 16. Joining them are co-producer/multi-instrumentalist Bruce Kaphan on mandolin and pedal steel guitar and Dillon Vado on drums and percussion.
“Everything is very specifically chosen,” Misner said. “If it doesn’t serve the story of the song, it’s getting in the way.”
In an era increasingly crowded with synthetic sounds and AI slop, Misner & Smith offer something sacred: songs built by hand, shaped by time, honed, lived with, battle-tested and meant to be experienced—body and soul. Misner & Smith paid the dues forward and don’t seem to mind. As they sing in “Little Light,” their album’s final track:
I don’t mind the dark
The dark’s what made a light of me
Misner & Smith bring their full band to HopMonk Sebastopol on Friday, Jan. 16. ‘All Is Song’ is available now. Visit misnerandsmith.com.
