“Volkov sings like a man out of time”
-The Edmonton Journal
"A voice reminiscent of Roy Orbison”
-RANGE Magazine
“One of the freshest voices I’ve heard in over a decade, Sammy restores my faith that there is still much innovating and interesting music to be made, and that rock music is alive and well.”
-Dr. Daniel Levitin
(Author of the New York Times Bestseller "This Is Your Brain On Music" & Musician who has worked with Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, Jonathan Richman & others)
“Sammy’s voice is one I wish I had, his songs are ones I wish I had written … If I owned a record label I’d sign him, if I had a radio station I’d play him, if I owned a paper I’d write about him.”
-Del Barber
5 time Western Canadian Music award winner, 3 Juno award nominations
Secret Subway Conversations
"Long Long Gone" is the second single from Sammy Volkov & Dana Wylie's upcoming album "The Day Had To Come"
You can purchase the song and see full credits and lyrics on Bandcamp.
You can also hear the song on Spotify, YouTube, or any other streaming service. Grant Stovel premiered the song on his CKUA program "Alberta Morning."
"Secret Subway Conversations" is the debut single from Sammy Volkov & Dana Wylie's upcoming album "The Day Had To Come" (May 2024).
You can purchase the song and see full credits and lyrics on Bandcamp.
You can also hear the song on Spotify, YouTube, or any other streaming service. Lisa Wilton premiered the song on her CKUA program "Traffic Jams."
There's a nice write up about the single in Canadian Beats here!
"Be Alright!"
Listen to Sammy's feature CBC Radio segment with Tara McCarthy here
Sammy sings and talks live on CJSR's "It Takes a Village" with Rhea March here
"Be Alright!" debuted at #1 on the CKUA Top 30 Chart and within a month of its release, reached #38 on CKUA's Top 200 Album Chart for 2022! It also debuted at #19 on the Earshot National Top 50 Chart.
The 11 track album is available on all streaming services. Copies of the CD are available at Blackbyrd Myoozik in Edmonton. You can also purchase a copy of the CD & digital files here.
Since releasing the single “Weather Report” at the start of summer, Sammy Volkov has been turning a lot of heads with a sound that updates vintage early ‘60s pop and R&B with modern themes and sensibilities.
Based in so-called Edmonton, Alberta, Sammy’s musical approach might borrow a couple of quirks from Sinatra, a little flourish from M. Ward or Neil Young, a riff from the Shirelles, but before you know it he’s crafted something startlingly original from an esoteric palette of sonic colours. It’s all there on “Be Alright!”, an 11-song collection that combines Brill Building skill with Brian Wilson-esque ambition, all tied together by a voice as supple and entrancing as any heard in recent memory. Sammy takes music history seriously, and we get to reap the benefits. While taking his first leap into recording with a 2018 independent EP (released under the name Sam Wolfe), he went to New York City to follow his other longstanding dream of becoming an actor. Although he graduated from SUNY’s prestigious Acting BFA Conservatory, Sammy’s life in New York primarily consisted of doing behind the scenes work for many top rated television shows, and singing at open mic nights in Brooklyn.
When, one day, he came to the conclusion that he wasn’t making much creative progress, he contacted his producer Harry Gregg and engineer Scott Franchuk back at Edmonton’s Riverdale Recorders and said, “Let’s make an album.” What followed has been an emotional two-year journey, from initial recording sessions at the start of 2020, to finishing the album at the height of the pandemic, to now finally being able to share “Be Alright!”
It’s easy to simply say that if you appreciate great songwriting delivered in a classic, compelling package, then Sammy Volkov may just be your new favourite artist. But that barely does justice to the music contained on “Be Alright!” Few artists today have the vision to raise their work to the level of the 20th century’s greatest composers and performers, but that’s precisely what Sammy Volkov has done. Prepare to be astounded.
-Lisa Wilton featured the record as her album of the week and interviewed Sammy on CKUA's Traffic Jams.
-Check out this interview and "Be Alright" video premiere from Range Magazine.
-And here you can listen to Sammy on the Cups N Cakes podcast Inside the Artists' Studio - Episode 129.
Be Alright (single)
Listen to Jessica Ng's full interview with Sammy on the CBC Radio program Radio Active here!
This is the third single and title track from Sammy's upcoming album. Kate Stevens and Lisa Wilton were the first announcers to play the single on CKUA Radio (with Stevens giving the song its debut). Sammy says:
"I wrote 'Be Alright' after running back home to Edmonton from NYC with my tail between my legs. Plague numbers were exploding and protests were really taking off. This is a song I wrote in response to what I perceived as powerful people's hollow gestures. We were hearing a lot of vapid talk and seeing very little meaningful action.
It piques my interest when a song combines bright, catchy vibes with dark, mysterious lyrics; I tried to pull that off here. I think you can hear some Beatles, Ron Sexsmith, and Emitt Rhodes influence on this song.
If the Vincent Price movie "The Last Man on Earth" was still in the public domain, I would've included an audio clip of Price as he tries to comfort a wounded dog. "Everything's gonna be alright" he says. Well, sorry if I'm spoiling it, but in that movie, things do not go very well for Vincent or his poor doggy."
Recorded at Riverdale Recorders with Harry Gregg producing and on bass, Scott Franchuk mixing and engineering, and Philip Shaw Bova mastering. Daniela Roth plays the theremin, Brendan Lyons on drums and percussion, Brennan Cameron on keys, Chris Tabbert on guitar. Travis Salty made the cover art.
Video Premiere on RANGE
Blue Star
Sammy's offering another preview of his debut full-length album Be Alright! (out Dec. 4) with “Blue Star,” on which his Roy Orbison-level voice gets to shine over a stellar arrangement, complete with baritone sax solo and female backing chorus. Sammy says of “Blue Star":
"I was living in Toronto when I wrote this song. My grandmother had passed away and I was parked at dusk in a lakeside neighborhood that was strange to me. I looked up and saw a peculiarly blue, clear little star that I had never seen before. I imagined that the star was new and a point of connection to my grandmother—now to be constant with my love for her. I used to perform the song in a slow, Townes Van Zandt-kinda way, but I was biking around Edmonton one day after listening to a lot of Dion and the Belmonts and Jonathan Richman and tried setting the melody to an ‘up’ kind of soulful rhythm. Solomon Burke’s recording of ‘Cry To Me’ is a track I emulated here.”
Recorded at Riverdale Recorders with Harry Gregg producing and on bass, Scott Franchuk mixing and engineering, and Philip Shaw Bova mastering. Dana Wylie provides backup vocals, Brendan Lyons on drums and percussion, Brennan Cameron on keys, Chris Tabbert on guitar, Dave Babcock on sax. Travis Salty made the cover art.
Video Premiere on Amplify Music Magazine
+Check out this write-up from The Indy Review
Weather Report
Check out a review from Jack Garton in Citrus Magazine here and press from Canadian Beats Media here
“Weather Report” caresses the ear like a dual homage to Roy Orbison and the great Brill Building songwriters, while capturing Sammy’s almost cinematic approach to making music. Sammy says of “Weather Report”:
“I was writing the storyline to a film about an emotionally stifled teen growing up in the rural area of so-called Edmonton in the 1960s. He begins to find himself when he drives into town each weekend to hear a band play their regular gig and he becomes infatuated with the drummer. However, he doesn’t know if he can express this feeling, and as a way of getting closer to the drummer, he writes a song for the band to record. He gives them a demo and of course the song is a kind of angst-ridden love letter.
Contextualizing the song in this way was my way of rewriting history. Unfortunately, there are no ‘60s music videos about a young man who has a crush on another
guy. But that doesn’t mean the melody and musical structure cannot be re-purposed. This song drew heavily from Frankie Valli's ‘The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore.’”
Recorded at Riverdale Recorders with Harry Gregg producing and on bass, Scott Franchuk mixing and engineering, and Philip Shaw Bova mastering. Dana Wylie provides backup vocals, Brendan Lyons on drums and percussion, Brennan Cameron on keys, Chris Tabbert on guitar, Dave Babcock on sax. Daniela Roth was the photographer and Travis Salty made the cover art.
Video Premiere on Cups N Cakes!
THE EP
SAM WOLFE SINGS!
“It's not often, but every once in a while, someone I've never heard of walks in and blows my socks off. I felt a little like Sam Phillips last night."
- Scott Franchuk
While performing under the moniker "Sam Wolfe", Sammy recorded his first EP in the Summer of 2018 with his friend Jeremy Witten on bass and the brilliant Scott Franchuk engineering. The classic, haunting sounds were captured at "The Audio Department", one of Edmonton's classic recording spaces.
Documentary Appearance!
On the evening of September 17th, "Riding the Waves" premiered at Festival Place. This documentary features 11 artists who relate their pandemic experiences and share their music. Sammy is featured about 10 minutes into the film (following the wonderful D'orjay The Singing Shaman).
VIDEOS
“Gorgeous, heartfelt, soulful singing with such a lovely natural technique. Just absolutely stunning. Listen to Sammy, follow him on Spotify and be transported. So beautiful.”
- Amy Van Keeken (CKUA Radio)
“As a veteran of this industry, I know that it is practically unheard of for an artist to burst out of the gate presenting the highest levels of artistic assuredness and eclecticism - but with “Be Alright!”, Sammy has done just that.”
- Chris Wynters (VP Artist Management - Six Shooter Records)
“Heads up, here's one to watch! Beautiful, absolutely beautiful!”
- Rhea March (CJSR Radio)
ABOUT SAMMY
Photo: Daniela Roth
EPK:
With his debut, Sammy Volkov crafted startlingly original music while taking inspiration from classic 1960s pop. Today he is drawing more on his contemporaries.
While taking his first leap into recording with a 2018 independent EP, the so-called Edmonton artist went to New York City and Los Angeles to follow his other longstanding dream of becoming an actor in 2010. Sammy graduated SUNY Purchase’s prestigious Acting BFA Conservatory. His New York life primarily consisted of production-office work for HBO Max, Showcase, and Warner Brothers TV series while writing songs and performing them at Brooklyn open mics.
In late 2019, Sammy contacted producer Harry Gregg and engineer Scott Franchuk back at Edmonton’s Riverdale recorders and said, “Let’s make an album.” What followed was an emotional two-year journey, from initial sessions in 2020, to finishing the album at the height of the pandemic, to finally sharing “Be Alright!” In December 2022. Sammy self-funded a successful professional campaign with three singles, accompanying videos, and full album release culminating with a celebration attended by many friends and Edmonton arts community leaders. “Be Alright!” reached the #1 spot on CJSR, was the first album to debut at #1 on the CKUA Top 30 Chart, and within a month of its release, reached #38 on CKUA’s Top 200 Album Chart for 2022. The album debuted at #19 on Earshot’s National Top 50 Chart.
Since creating his debut, Sammy has written and recorded a collaborative album with Dana Wylie, opened twice for Mariel Buckley, headlined at festivals, and completed a succesful Western-Canadian album-support tour with Jack Garton and Kitty & the Rooster. He recently performed at the Edmonton, Canmore, & Calgary International Folk Festivals and will be appearing at Folk Alliance 2024 in Kansas City. His sophomore album is in pre-production and Sammy was awarded full funding from the Edmonton Arts Council to complete the project. He was awarded 2nd place for Penguin Eggs / Roots Music Canada Critics' 2023 "New Discovery of the Year."