Sam Lewis: Waiting On You

Irresistible second outing from Nashville singer-songwriter.

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There’s really nothing remotely complicated about Sam Lewis. From that regular-guy name to simple songs with simple titles such as Talk To Me and I’m Coming Home, to his easy-going blend of soul, country and blues, the whole package is as warm and comforting as a favourite old cardy on this follow-up to 2012’s (naturally) self-titled debut.

Even when his songs do something other than what they say in the title, you sense he don’t mean nothin’ by it. 34 Time is a gorgeously laid-back, doo-wop laced celebration of bohemian slackerdom in a perfectly uncluttered 44 tempo, and while Reinventing The Blues does nothing of the sort, you won’t be complaining at his lilting honky-tonk canter through a trying week in the life. Lewis is strongest when he’s taking it slow, like on Never Again’s lovelorn pedal steelstreaked blues, and while his music may yet suffer from being so un-edgy that it fails to gain popular attention, the rest of us can just blissfully breathe it in.

Johnny Sharp

Johnny is a regular contributor to Prog and Classic Rock magazines, both online and in print. Johnny is a highly experienced and versatile music writer whose tastes range from prog and hard rock to R’n’B, funk, folk and blues. He has written about music professionally for 30 years, surviving the Britpop wars at the NME in the 90s (under the hard-to-shake teenage nickname Johnny Cigarettes) before branching out to newspapers such as The Guardian and The Independent and magazines such as Uncut, Record Collector and, of course, Prog and Classic Rock