New England native Sammy Rae (a stage name for Samantha Bowers) boasts a powerful blend of pop, jazz, and a whole cornucopia of genres. Sure, her name may be at the head of the project, but her presence is only supplementary to an incredibly tight eight-piece band which hosts background singers, two horn players, bass, drums, & guitar. That’s quite a heavy nod to this group’s prowess as musicians, considering Bowers’ incredible vocal delivery and versatile range, evidence of which can be found in just about any track within their discography.
Samantha Bowers grew up in Connecticut, and after moving to New York to pursue a career in teaching, ended up forming The Friends and eventually dropping their first EP The Good Life in 2018. Since their debut the group has obtained fairly decent commercial success – their most played song on Spotify currently has over 12 million listens and counting.
The group is hot off their latest single “Follow me like the Moon,” after releasing a killer cover of Tears for Fears’ “Everybody wants to Rule the World” and a pandemic EP Lets throw a party!, the latter being a pretty appropriate name. A party is exactly how their music sounds; a celebration of diversity within music, instruments, and cultures. In Bowers’ own words: “There’s all this nonsense going on. So much chaos, so much pain. And we’re all just sitting going through it together. We’re all in the same spot. There’s really nothing to do except throw a party.”
This marks The Friends’ first return to Boston since selling out The Sinclair in 2020, only touching base in Western Massachusetts at the Green River Festival during their 2021 tour. The return is clearly welcome, as the band is delivering not one, but two shows at The Royale on the 26th and 27th this month.
We’re giving away a pair of tickets for the 26th date. Fill out the form below by 10pm on Thursday the 24th for a chance to win!