Nashville-based duo Sam & Ruby gently blend R&B, folk and pop into a sound so immediately warm and welcoming that falling in love with their debut album is a foregone conclusion. Ruby Amanfu boasts a sophisticated, soulful voice with gospel-like conviction. It beautifully complements Sam Brooker’s relaxed, confident approach, his voice balanced somewhere between the bar room and the back porch. They aim to reach both the head and the heart and a few other parts as well: 'The Here and the Now' will surely inspire more than a few couples to get up and dance close and slow, wherever and whenever they happen to be listening.

That Sam & Ruby have succeeded so brilliantly, and so seemingly effortlessly, is a tribute to their talent and chemistry - and to the sometimes felicitous role fate plays in music and in life.

Recalling that moment, almost a decade ago, when she first heard Sam perform, Ruby says, "I saw Sam before Sam saw me. I walked into this club and Sam was playing. It took me about 2.2 seconds before I thought, I want some of that. I felt really lucky and blessed to be there that night. I had been brought there by mutual friends, so we talked afterwards and I basically said, ‘let’s hang out.’"

"That was the beginning," says Sam. "We became friends. In Nashville it’s so normal that everyone plays music, so that was always part of the deal. Then I got to see Ruby do a show and she just blew me away. Part of it was that we would go to each other’s shows and cheer each other on. We were fans of one another’s music."