Sara Van Buskirk Is Ready for Her Next Chapter

Houston has never lacked musical talent, but Sara Van Buskirk’s music stands apart for its emotional honesty. The Houston-based singer-songwriter blends Americana, folk, roots, country, bluegrass, and indie influences into a sound that feels equally at home in Nashville, Austin, or Houston. Yet it’s the intention behind every lyric that leaves the deepest impression.

Van Buskirk (she/they) doesn’t simply want audiences to hear her songs. She wants them to leave changed. “I’m a queer songwriter,” she states. “I write songs that make you feel something. I really hope to radically awaken anyone that listens to my music into action towards love, because I believe that love is an action.”

That philosophy grew from her own journey toward authenticity after growing up queer in the church. If there’s one song she hopes new listeners hear first, it’s her latest single “Comfortable Lie,” which is also the opening track from her forthcoming sophomore album. “It’s a song that explores the duality of life,” she explains, “living as a split person and keeping it together on the journey to becoming your full authentic self.”

“It’s a little autobiographical for me. I grew up queer in the church, and so there was definitely a large part of myself that I shut down,” she adds. “It took years of personal work to realize that I had split myself in two, and that I was living a lie.”

Raised by a single mother in Houston’s Alief community, Van Buskirk says resilience became a choice rather than simply a label. That perspective has also shaped the artists she surrounds herself with. “I’ve found that queer and other marginalized artists, we’re speaking the same language,” she says. “We’re looking for joy. We’re looking for inspiration with our heads up and strong in the face of adversity and struggle.”

That same outlook fuels her commitment to representation. “I’d love to see more queer artists showing us their work and being unapologetically themselves,” she emphasizes. “Representation is one of the reasons that I show up the way that I show up, because I want to be for my community what I lacked growing up.”

Houston audiences will have several opportunities to experience that firsthand this summer. Fresh off winning the Houston Blues Challenge, sponsored by the Houston Blues Society, Van Buskirk will represent Houston at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee, in January 2027. She headlines the sixth Annual Miller Summer Mixtape at Miller Outdoor Theatre on August 15, hosted by Kam Franklin. She will also perform at the Solar Flare Music Festival on August 29, followed by a September 4 appearance at The Mucky Duck. Those performances are among the few opportunities for audiences to hear songs from her long-awaited second album, which remains unreleased despite being creatively complete.

For more than a year, Van Buskirk has been crowdfunding the project, raising money not only for mixing, mastering, vinyl production, and paying fellow musicians, but also for the marketing campaign she believes the record deserves. “I don’t want to release my album and risk my career on a maybe,” she reveals. “I want to do everything in my power to expand my market and give my music the chance that it deserves to be heard by as many people as possible.”

Beyond that, she jokes that independent artists have to wear countless hats. Many independent artists have to be their own managers, marketers, content creators, and fundraisers. “It’s a lot of hats to wear, and it’s fun,” she laughs. “Thankfully I look good in hats.”

Still, waiting to release music she’s already finished hasn’t been easy. “It kills me,” she says bluntly. “There’s more, and I’m just sitting on all of it. So, as a performer, it drives me crazy.”

Until then, live performances remain the only place audiences can experience much of Van Buskirk’s newest work. “I believe that writing songs and sharing them is what I was put on this planet to do,” she points out. “I take it very seriously.”

That sense of purpose is reflected in the response she receives from audiences. Fans have told her they went home inspired to create after her concerts, while others have cried during performances or even watched their Apple Watches record elevated heart rates throughout the show. “I feel my audience,” she elaborates. “I love my audience. They’re everything to me.”

The forthcoming album captures Van Buskirk at her most vulnerable. Among its most personal songs is “Put Me in the Ground, We Can Grow,” which uses the imagery of a seed buried in darkness before blooming as a metaphor for transformation. “Making this particular record has been a truly transformational experience,” she points out.

Like a seed, “I’ve died a thousand times,” she continues. “I have to die to grow. And the seed dies over and over again, and it bears delicious fruit. So, I’m here to grow, and I’m here to bear fruit.”

For Van Buskirk, that transformation isn’t just personal. It’s communal. “I don’t think that you can create safe spaces for others without telling your story honestly,” she posits. “I’m here to be my full authentic self, honestly, loudly, proudly, so that I can kick doors open for other people.”

Ultimately, her definition of success extends well beyond album sales. “A fully funded album isn’t just one album,” she explains. “This launches my entire career forward.”

And asked what she hopes people will be saying a year from now, her answer is refreshingly simple: “I love her. She’s making music that makes me feel seen and inspired. Have you heard this new album? Do you want to go to a show with me?”

Keep up with Sara Van Buskirk on Instagram @saravanbuskirk.