Spreading joy all around, Sam Weber and his musical crew are coming to The Evening Muse.
When it comes to intimate performance spaces in the Queen City, for many, The Evening Muse is the first to come to mind. It’s the perfect home for any performer that really wants to feel the crowd. As an audience member, if you’re looking to feel as if you are a part of the performance, well The Evening Muse should be your spot. Excited to hit the road and looking forward to spreading the joy of music, singer-songwriter Sam Weber will be playing on March 13 as he brings his Get Free tour to town with fellow musician Matthew Fowler. Speaking with Sam not too long ago, I had a chance to learn a little bit about what we can expect and how his latest music has all come together.
Sam’s latest album Get Free was written prior to but recorded during the early days of the pandemic. We all had to adjust to new and different ways of doing lots of things in our daily lives and for Sam that meant rethinking how to record music. Sam described the scaled-back approach to recording the music for Get Free as a “joy”. Out of the studio and forced into a completely DIY approach, Sam collaborated with his partner Mallory Hauser and their friend Danny Austin Manning to not just record the album, but through collaboration, bring the material to life.
“Danny would come over and the three of us would turn on the microphones and give these wild, unchained performances of the material. The songs became as much about the experience and ritual of spending time together as the content in the lyrics. I called the record Get Free because each performance of each song was a moment of transcendence and an escape for us from an otherwise odd, restrictive time.”
As I spoke with Sam, those themes of joy, collaboration, and simply making music really stood out to me. I could feel his love for the community in his life and their shared passion for creating. With several EPs and albums behind him, Sam has a catalog of music to look back upon at this point in his career. As he described how his music has evolved, culminating in the release of Get Free, Sam noted impacts from new places, new faces, life in general, and gave extra credit to the musicians in his life. Discussing how his fondness of making music with others has pushed his writing, Sam said his approach has become more improvisational as he lets inspiration more freely flow from the musicians he works with, once again crediting the musicians in his life as an inspiration for his development.
Out now a little over a month, Get Free has had time to make some impressions on fans of Sam’s music and the new faces that he has seen as part of his current tour. When speaking of touring, Sam shared how important the audiences he greets are in his love of making music, and that through the pandemic with time off the road that appreciation has deepened. Even with a strong community of musicians to support in the writing and recording process the one key element missing has been the audiences and the inspiration he draws from the people he meets on tour. The joy of music is not just in making it but also sharing it and Sam is excited to bring that missing part of performing back. Sam brings his tour to Charlotte this Saturday and he cannot wait to share the experience. As a fan of live music if you treasure the same joy in “sharing the experience,” then there may be no better place than The Evening Muse Sunday, March 13 as you participate with Sam and his musical crew.
