Sam Sims - Conga Drum, Hollywood, War Becomes Love, Te Extrano, Feel Christmas

​Sam Sims

​Conga Drum, Hollywood, War Becomes Love, Te Extrano, Feel Christmas

​​By ​Dino DiMuro

Sam Sims is an indie musician from New Jersey with quite a pedigree: he’s shared stages with artists like Willie Nile (sideman to Bruce Springsteen), Sever Forbert and The Beach Boys, even opening for Bob Marley’s Wailers in 2014 and 2015.  His music has been licensed for prime-time television and gets lots of radio play, and of course he also fronts his own band. His list of credits only gets longer from there, but today we’ll be looking at his current single releases “Conga Drum,” “Hollywood,” “War Becomes Love,” “Te Extrano” and “Feel Christmas.”

Sims himself plays guitar, ukulele and harmonica and has been influenced by folk-rock and island music, creating his own acoustic soul-pop hybrid. Many of his original songs are described as “having a laid-back feel inspired by nature.” His musical influences include Van Morrison, David Gray, Jim Croce, Ben Harper and Jack Johnson. His songs are also informed by his volunteer work in the United States and Nicaragua.

First up is “Conga Drum” which has an island vibe as if sung by Jose Feliciano by way of Van Morrison (I wrote this before I knew Morrison was one of Sims’ influences!). The stringed instruments have a great churning groove (using the muted strings for rhythm) and of course the drums and percussion are tight and clean. The song itself is a nifty pop-reggae love tune. He even steals the iconic Steve Miller “wolf whistle” effect! But that’s forgiven as he actually fires off a Carlos Santana-style lead solo, followed by Santana-like congas.

Next up is the rather Dylan-like “Hollywood” (I’m gonna mention Dylan if I hear ringing guitars, tenor vocals and harmonica). I can certainly catch some of Sim’s other influences here, especially Bob Marley and Ben Harper. Aside from the lovely circular guitar melodies, the percussion is again quite varied and right in the pocket, which must be a Sims trademark even without “Conga Drum” in the title.

“War Becomes Love” is a gentle, bluesy tune with gorgeous upfront guitars playing beautiful licks. It’s funny how this laid-back protest song uses language better suited to “1984” but then spins it around: “Love becomes war… why can’t war become lovin’?” I haven’t seen any production credits but thus far every song is impeccably recorded and mixed, and this one has yet another tasty, just slightly distorted lead guitar solo and still more congas!

“Te Extrano” translates to “I Miss You” in English, and the painfully lush acoustic guitars and steel drums more than bear this out. Funny how Jose Feliciano previously came to mind, as this is a song I could totally imagine him writing and singing. In fact I was very surprised to see that this was not a cover but a Sims original. So beautiful you could get married to it!

“Feel Christmas” is appropriately the final track here, but thankfully it avoids all the hokey Christmas song tropes like bells or fragments of well-known carols. As the fifth track in a row, by now I feel I have a handle on the Sam Sims Sound and this hits all the benchmarks: Sweet, intimate harmony vocals, ringing acoustic and electrics, solid percussion and a note-perfect guitar solo.

​Five great songs to check out, and there’s tons more where they came from. You better get started!

samsimsmusic.com

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