Sammy Rae & The Friends Release Highly Anticipated Debut Album ‘Something For Everybody’

Sammy Rae & The Friends have come to represent more than just a band: they are a full-on movement being adopted with a refreshingly diverse clientele. Today, they release their glorious and highly anticipated debut album, Something For Everybody, out now via Nettwerk. To celebrate the release of the album, Sammy Rae & The Friends partnered with The Wild Honey Pie on the Good Time Tavern release party in NYC last night where they played an intimate stripped down performance and over 1100 fans signed up for a chance to attend. They also celebrated the lead-up to the album release with in-stores at Rough Trade NYC, which sold out in 24 hours, and Newbury Comics in Boston earlier this week.

Sammy Rae on Something For Everybody

The album ‘Something for Everybody’ leans into what has previously been a point of confusion and even self-consciousness for this band; what kind of music do we make? Our genre is hard to pin down, there are all sorts of instruments and influences flying around, and arrangement wise no two songs sound too much like each other. After 7 years of playing, touring, and recording, we’ve come to realize that that simply isn’t going away. We won’t wake up one day and decide we are a jazz band, or a rock band, or a folk band. When looking at what we had and wanted to write for this album, our natural process of ‘what songs come, and what best serves the song…not a genre’ came forward. We realized that we had a little of everything. It’s a strength of ours, and one of our best assets. The production, vocals, and songwriting voice are the cohesive thread between all of our songs. We basically thought ‘if we haven’t landed on one avenue by now, I guess we never will. And that’s our superpower.’ This album is a culmination of where we’ve been, where we are, and where we want to go. It’s the beginning of a new chapter of elevated production (thanks to our producer Fernando Lodiero) and features a level of collaboration we’ve always dreamed of standing in (guest vocals, more writers, a string quartet, gang vocals). No matter what sort of music you like, and what you’re looking for in a band, this album has a little of everything we do. There’s ‘Something for Everybody.’Ahead of the album’s release, the band also shared the incredible music video, directed by Sammy Rae & Emilia Aghamirzai, for their previously released single, the seductive rock’n’roll earworm “Thieves.” Watch the music video for “Thieves” HERE.

WATCH “THIEVES” (EMBED)

Sammy Rae & The Friends will also embark on a major North American tour beginning later this month. The dates will kick off on September 30th at Stage AE in Pittsburgh, PA and include several multi-night residencies including Showbox SoDo in Seattle, WA on October 11th and 12th, two hometown shows at Terminal 5 in New York City on November 8th and 9th, Academy of Music in Northampton, MA on November 12th and 13th and a return Roadrunner in Boston on November 15th and 16th. Drag Queen and environmental and LGBTQ activist Pattie Gonia will open several of the dates on the tour. A full list of tour dates are below and for more details and to purchase tickets visit https://www.sammyrae.com. A portion of the proceeds from this tour will go to the Ally Coalition and their work supporting LGBTQ youth across the country. 

In addition to the US dates, Sammy Rae & The Friends have just announced new EU and UK dates where her global success is on full display. In London she’ll play the 02 Brixton Academy, a 5000 capacity venue and will play other venues throughout the UK with which can hold thousands of her fans. Her remarkable ticket sales success has been due in large part to her exhilarating live show, launching her into bigger and bigger venues with each return. 

As a child Sammy Rae had an “aha” moment, while watching an episode of Vh1’s Behind The Music on Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band. Though she was already writing songs and playing music at a young age, a different type of ambition struck her – she wanted to be a band leader. It was at this moment that the idea for her musical project was born. She went on to establish a group of remarkable musicians, each with their own unique talent and together an unstoppable collective. In the last few months Sammy Rae has released “No Rulebook,” “I Get It Now,” “Thieves” and “Coming Home Song,” and together they mark the first three releases of new recorded music since she burst onto the scene with her two EPs The Good Life (2018) and Let’s Throw a Party (2021). Since those early releases, Sammy Rae & The Friends have become a juggernaut. With a live experience that fans liken to church…or communion, however you see it, it’s an exultation and a cathartic release like no other musical act can offer. In the few years since she started workshopping her live show at NYC’s Rockwood Music Hall, she’s grown to selling out 5000 cap venues from London to LA and continues to add to her fervent fanbase. 

LISTEN “COOL DOUG, AT NIGHT” (EMBED)
WATCH “NO RULEBOOK” HERE (EMBED)
WATCH “WE MADE IT (FEAT. CELISSE)” (EMBED)
WATCH “COMING HOME SONG” (EMBED)

For as much as Sammy Rae & The Friends may be a band, this collective of dreamers and artists considers themselves a family first. They flourish in any spotlight with a combination of all-for-one and one-for-all camaraderie, palpable chemistry, deft virtuosity, and vocal fireworks. Their sound is a mélange of Sammy’s influences, rooted in classic rock, folk, and funk and sprinkled with soul and jazz. Complete with a rhythm section and two saxophones, The Friends had a stellar year of high-energy performances throughout 2023 playing their biggest shows and festivals to date, including Central Park Summerstage, Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, and their first-ever international headline tour, which saw them selling out venues from North America to the UK and Europe, including London’s 5,000 cap Apollo Theatre two times.

Rae has been building toward this moment since moving to NYC from Connecticut in her early 20s. Finding herself without a built-in peer group, she simply built it herself: the literal and proverbial “Friends.” When she started playing shows, she made sure the audience was part of the family too. Everything that’s happened since, from the EPs to sold-out shows in major markets and secondary markets alike across North America and the UK & Europe, to high-profile festival sets around the world, including Bonnaroo’s main stage, Sound on Sound and more, has been based on friends telling friends. 

SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY
TRACK LISTING:

1. The Friends Intro
2. Thieves
3. Coming Home Song
4. No Rulebook
5. Cool-Doug, At Night
6. Call Ya Back
7. 888-99-CALLYABAK
8. I Get It Now
9. We Made It
10. Good Time Tavern
11. Luck Of The Draw
12. David
13. State Song