Sam & Ruby

Originating from Tennessee, singer/songwriters Sam Brooker and Ruby Amanfu produce country-pop songs steeped in soulful folk and R&B influences that mirror their contrasting roots. Brooker, raised in Bowling Green, OH, first crossed paths with African-born Amanfu during a Nashville writer's night in 1999. Their immediate rapport led them to promote one another's material, culminating in a joint effort on the song "The Here and the Now." The duo achieved their breakthrough in 2007 after the progressive bluegrass outfit the Duhks cut a Grammy-nominated take of Amanfu's "Heaven's My Home," with Sam & Ruby's version later appearing on the 2008 soundtrack to The Secret Life of Bees. Their debut album, The Here and the Now, arrived on Rykodisc in 2009.