August Music Appreciation ~ Sammy Rae & The Friends 15Aug23

We're back from Ireland where we enjoyed a number of nights of Celtic & Irish artists. Ireland's significant percentage of skilled musicians playing every night in every nook & cranny pub in every town is pretty special. Accordions, harmoniums, concertinas, harps, fiddles, guitars ~ put strings or reeds on it and play it like you mean it... rare is percussion, rhythm rules. It was really cool and I saw the influence on Americana ~ but they are distinct.

But, I'm not going there right now, though I'll stick with rhythm... I am back in the US and for now, for August MA I'll focus exclusively on an incredible artist: Sammy Rae (Samantha Bowers): a spectacular virtuoso, swing singer/songwriter, and bandleader of Sammy Rae & The Friends. While I am late to the celebration as she's been recording since before 2018, I am ecstatic to have heard a voice like hers with an infectious inclusive vibe like hers. In the dive, she's always sounded otherworldly with jazz stylings but the wide-ranging swing/scat/sing-song vocals have flourished with her bridge to full time songwriter & bandleader. Now we get everything: the voice, the vibe, her sentiments, her choices of killer NYC artists (or transplants) including a keen sax rhythm section and super-fine backing vocals ~ The Friends are amazing. And we seem to get shows born of Broadway theater-level presence and yet we feel like we're in the '40s. I really can't say enough ~ I'm in awe and have purchased the entire catalog, including today's live album release "If It All Goes South." Decent dynamic range for live feeds.

Sure the album was released before my screams were heard from the floor of the Ogden Theater in Denver this fall; fine - I have tix and that's enough. Too, the sound & mix from their EPs and this LP is great; congrats sound guys ~ 'cause as they need to be, her vocals are forward in the mix; she's the complete shizzle. I imagine she has a full hand in all that soundscape too. I tuned the recent iterations of the Nest Music Theater on a couple of her live studio shows.

Official recordings are on Bandcamp. My flac downloads allowed measurement of dynamic range of each... they are decent but display some compression... she's a pretty recent pro but still I personally would like to hear her and this band even more unadulterated. She's a very hard working lady and here are the two EPs and a couple of keen singles... click through the singles to get the tunes.

So, if you made it to this point I will offer some good live shows they've done kindof recently. Somehow, she always gains right to the full house feed and contracts keen video coverage... smart lady... probably it was all part of making the latest live album.

• Live @ Boston Roadrunner "Talk It Up" Oct22
• Live @ Boston Royale Mar22
  
• Live @ Brooklyn Steel in NYC "Kick It To Me" Oct21
  
• Live @ The Sinclair in Boston Jan20

 In all ways ~ this stuff is strong.