Meet Samara C. Pals, the Georgia-based singer-songwriter whose music reflects her unwavering faith and compassion. Samara's journey began in a small town in Iowa, where her family and community nurtured her love for music and faith.
After years of participating in local church and music programs, Samara pursued a degree in music from Northwestern University, where she began to sense God's direction to write songs that combined her faith and artistry.
Through difficult seasons, Samara surrendered to God's healing touch and found a renewed voice full of warmth and hope. With her first studio album, Prisoner of Hope, released in 2021, and her upcoming Easter single, “Let It Be (Mary’s Song),” Samara's music continues to inspire and move hearts. In this article, we'll take a closer look at Samara's journey and the impact of her music on the worship community.
What message do you aim to convey to your audience through your music, and what drives your passion for sharing it with them?
God has specifically used the writing and recording process to bring healing and comfort into my life after significant losses. It’s my hope that my songs will be used to comfort people in their trouble with the same comfort that I have received from God. (2 Corinthians 1:4) I truly believe that God created music as a gift to help us express joy, worship, sorrow, loss, and pain and that it’s an invaluable tool for living well at every point on our journey.
Tell us about your more recent singles.
For “Let It Be (Mary’s Song),” I was writing songs from the Christmas story and kept thinking about how much of Mary’s life happens outside of the birth of Jesus that we celebrate at Christmas. We meet her close to a year before, probably, and she’s there at the foot of the cross. I couldn’t get that out of my head. I was especially impacted by the thought of her at the cross, watching her son die, as I remembered losing my cousins and my friend, none of whom made it to their 30s, and being with their mothers at their funerals (see below). So, I had wrapped up several Christmas songs, which fell out of that meditation but stood on their own. It also somewhat parallels David's response in the Old Testament when God tells him that one of his descendants will sit on the throne forever.
“Let It Be (Mary’s Song)” is a personal expression that God is faithful, but things don’t always look like we anticipated. That this amazing promise of a Messiah came with a cross is why we thought now was the perfect time to release it. This song is my own reminder of how God sees us and goes before us to turn our dark places into joy. And I hope it will continue to be an anthem for me—and everyone who hears it—in the future.
“Forgotten,” the single from my first full-length project, was written out of Job 3. My first album, Prisoner of Hope, was written out of the journey of several losses in my life and walking the path from pain to peace to praise to purpose. And there are elements on the album that specifically nod to those losses. “Forgotten” comes at the beginning of the album, where we’re still mourning. The title of Job 3 in some translations is Job Laments his Birth or Job Wishes He Had Never Been Born, and that is a hard place to be.
I can’t presume to say that everyone will feel that way at some point in their lives, although we know suffering will come. But I know that I have been in that place and that many people I love have been there. And I know our journeys back from that place can be long and winding. This is a song that gives space for lament and loss.
The album doesn’t stay there, just as our lives will not ultimately stay there but will eventually end in the joy of heaven. The next song is “How Long,” which includes the album title lyric, Prisoner of Hope. But the Bible holds a space for that just as we can hold a space for that, and “Forgotten” is one of those songs that stands in the in-between.
I’ve also recently done some fun holiday covers. I recorded "Hey Santa!” with the amazing duo, Hot Hearts, and “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?,” a song I recorded for my husband for our 10th wedding anniversary. We married on New Year’s Eve, and that was our first dance.
You share about losing your dad to cancer and how that impacted your music. Can you share what helped get you through that difficult time?
Absolutely. I’ve always wanted to be a singer, but I haven’t always wanted to be a writer. I majored in Classical Voice at Northwestern University in Illinois, and especially in classical music, performance, and composition are viewed as separate disciplines, even though I had some theory and composition requirements in undergrad. Still, God has specifically used these losses in my life to turn me into a writer as well.
My dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer when I was in college and passed away the same year I graduated. The grief was so difficult for me that I started struggling to perform. I could still sing in groups, but I began to shake so severely that being a performer was no longer an option. After several years, I was able to work through that with the help of some great coaches, but at the time, I lost my dad and all my dreams at once. Those were very hard, dark days.
Praying through that season, I felt led to law school, thinking maybe I could work for a label and still be involved in music. It was there that, in a small group bible study we did, I felt God leading me to start writing songs to process and mark what he had brought me through in the healing process.
God purified many idols in my life during that period and has opened many different doors since then. Still, seven years after my dad passed and seven years ago from current, we lost my grandfather, my cousin, his wife, and their three children—one of whom was only a couple of months old—in a car crash and a dear friend to an overdose. The next year we lost my grandmother. The grief and the weight of that season still ripple through our family today.
For me, my church community, worship, counseling, and just reading the Word of God regularly over these years have been the lifeline for me—especially the Word. All of it. Over and over has been a huge part of strengthening me during that journey through the valley and still to this day. I wouldn’t be here feeling largely comforted, built up, and healed without God’s Word, the work He does through it, the family of believers, and the worship.
My prayer, journaling, and mediation from those seasons ultimately became songs and the skills and relationships to keep writing and recording as God leads.
What’s next for you musically?
At least one more release is coming this year at Christmas, which is already finished and ready to go (yeah). We hope to get in the studio this summer for more than that, but that depends on tour schedules for the team I work with and how much time we must fit it in. So glad touring is back, but it does leave less time for the studio. Then, I’m writing my next project for recording next year, most likely. I’ve had the overall concept for this next project since my 20s, but it hasn’t felt like the time to write it until now. Stay tuned.
How can we pray for you?
We’ve been hoping to add to our family for a while now, so we are praying to see God’s provision and timing there.
Kevin McNeese started NRT in 2002 and has worked in the industry since 1999 in one form or another. He has been a fan of Christian music since 1991.
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