Mr. Sam & The People People
People People People People!

September 23, 2022
(Self Release)

 

PHOTO CREDIT: Gina Leslie

CLICK PHOTO FOR HI-RES JPG

 

ALBUM COVER

Among the American musical microcosm of New Orleans resides a songwriter with a mission to love better, love freer, and celebrate the simple moments of joy so easy to overlook. With the help of his band comprised of New Orleans friends and musical aces (including Sam Doores of The Deslondes, Ross Farbe of Video Age, Gina Leslie, and The Lostines), Mr. Sam & The People People delight with songs of the many small things worth holding onto on their new record People People People People!.

Mr. Sam’s kindly baritone croon welcomes the listener like a warm hug on a cold night, floating atop a mellow analog stew of New Orleans rhythm & blues, indie rock, folk singer-songwriter, and jangle pop sounds. From the breezy, psych-tinged nostalgia of “Pictures Of Us” to the rollicking piano jaunt “Get Up Early” to the playful, infectious groove of the album’s title track, it’s clear that Mr. Sam (aka Sam Gelband) is not hindered by limitations of genre. He simply writes to remind us of the happiness to be found in everyday moments and time with cherished loved ones: a joke with a neighbor, a sunny drive with the windows down. Equally sentimental as it is uplifting and whimsical, People People People People! will make you laugh, cry, smile, and rejoice all at once, and then pick up the phone to call an old friend. 

Mr. Sam’s influences are often within arms length. As a drummer, harmony vocalist and general collaborator, he has worked intimately alongside The Sons of Rainier, Sam Doores, Chris Acker, The Lostines, Dean Johnson, and has admired and studied their work while bringing his own songwriting voice to the table. While nodding to his earliest idols (Jonathan Richman, Velvet Underground, Neil Young, John Prine, Michael Hurley) Mr. Sam also brings out styles from deeper in the record bin, including older New Orleans R&B, (Lee Dorsey, Allen Tousaint, Ernie K-doe) and re-discovered lost works of artists like Johnnie Frierson.

In the liner notes for People People People People, New Orleans songwriter Chris Acker reflects on how Gelband has grown into his voice as a writer from a place of sincerity — “Growing up in Seattle mere blocks from the neon lights of the Guild 45th Cinema, Mr. Sam, aka songwriter Sam Gelband, often took himself to the movies. Not too picky for mid 2000’s Sandler or the latest Star Wars effort, Sam knew what he liked about it- and it was mostly just that he was at the movies. Though not aware at the time, he was already practicing the lifestyle and philosophy that colors the songs of his band, Mr Sam and the People People. Their songs are ones of joy and simple pleasure, love and bicycles, friends and memories. Finding what you love and holding onto it. What you care about and celebrating it. But it’s not positivity with blinders on its eyes, it’s happiness in spite of an unforgiving world. The music of Mr Sam is not created from sunshine and caramels but from a bittersweet reality, an acknowledgment that all we really have in this life are the sweet moments we allow for ourselves and share with one another, people to people. An afternoon with the one you love, a night around a fire with your oldest buds, a solo trip to the cinema; the times that bring us joy by way of joy for the sake of joy. The stuff that keeps us going. That’s what being a People is about.”

“I hope that when you listen to this record, you think of somebody or something you care deeply about, and that you remember that they care deeply about you, too,” says Mr. Sam. “The aim of this record is not just to demonstrate my own gratitude and celebration of these things, but to offer the foundation of these feelings to you. If you walk away from the thirty minutes of this record remembering to pick up the phone and call somebody you love, I say mission accomplished. This is music to phone a friend to. These are songs for enjoyment and medium dancing. Some days are easier than others, some tasks more fruitful than others, but I believe it is all worth it when we remember we can do it all for the sake of People we love, People we need, People we remember, People we have yet to meet.”

Mr. Sam & The People On Tour

For more information, please contact:
Maddie Corbin
maddie@luckybirdmedia.com