Staff Writer Polly Symes reflects on her Sammy Rae & The Friends experience, convincing that everyone should befriend the band – at least on streaming platforms.
Ever felt the urge to chop off all your hair? Ever accented an outfit with a pair of scandalous socks? Ever thought that men should have more space to talk about their mental health?
If so, I reckon Sammy Rae & The Friends ought to be on your Spotify wrapped this year.
Luckily for you, as of yet, they only have one album and a few singles to catch up on. But having recently just played their biggest gig yet at the Brixton O2 (which I had the pleasure of attending), there’s no doubt that this seven-piece collective of musicians, fronted by singer-songwriter Sammy Rae, is going places.
Describing their sound as a fusion of “classic rock, folk and funk and sprinkled with soul and jazz“, the band truly does provide ‘Something for Everybody’, which, un-coincidentally, is the name of their debut album released last year. Tallying in at 13 tracks, there is something for every listener to get their teeth into (or ears pricked for). And that’s without even mentioning their various EPs such as ‘The Good Life’ (2018) and ‘Let’s Throw a Party‘ (2021).
Beyond the genre-defying eclecticism of The Friends’ musical output, the talent of each individual member is staggering. On stage, their ability to play off one another is impressive and above all authentic; the group seems like a family.
It isn’t often that you find seven such proficient musicians all in one place, working together to create something bigger than themselves. This notion of camaraderie is inherent to the band’s ethos: at their shows, they invite you, the audience member, to be their companion for the evening. And somehow, despite being sat in the upper circle in practically the last row of the almost-5,000-capacity O2, I felt like I was a friend of Sammy Rae.
This connection with their audience is achieved both through incredible stage presence and the maturity of the messages conveyed in their songs. In an era where adolescence is prized as the prime time to reach stardom (Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo are but a few of the chart-topping artists who rose to international fame as teens) and hustling by yourself is endlessly glamourised, it’s exciting to encounter a collaboration of artists who have already seen some of the world – Sammy Rae himself is 31. This worldly wisdom is reflected in the music they create. Whether that’s in ‘Coming Home Song‘, a heart-warming piece about learning from your mistakes and picking yourself up, or ‘Jackie Onassis‘, a song of yearning in “rose pink tinted glasses” for “a lady that carries herself right”, there is an unmistakable sense that this is a band that knows where they’ve been and has a dream of where they’re going. And there is no group more deserving of the success they have enjoyed in recent years.
Somewhat surprisningly, however, perhaps the most moving part of the February concert was not an original, but a stripped-back cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’. To sing the refrain: “The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind” with thousands of voices melding together was transcendental and an experience I felt incredibly lucky to have.
So, Sammy Rae, as you say in ‘The Friends Intro‘, “I wanna be friends with ya”. Will you have me?
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