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Sam Johnson's ‘21’ is your vibey end of summer beach song.

The 2nd soulful and smooth summer single from SF's Sam Johnson, ‘21’ is your vibey end of summer beach song.


The romantic pop single is such a nice listen. It has a smooth feel too it without the generic heavy bass and deeper vocals that I usually associated with a smoother male vocal. Sam has something light and airy to his music that makes it consistently an easy vibe. If I were to describe this song simply it would be like a warm summer breeze.


“21” is the 2nd single from Sam Johnson this summer, following up his June release "FUEGO" which landed on Spotify playlists Rock/Pop, Sunday Stroll, New Music Friday in Germany, and, New Music Friday in Switzerland, racking up over 25k streams


Originally from the beach cities of Southern California, Sam’s early influences include Bob Marley, Sublime, and No Doubt.


After falling on tough times, the loss of his mother and the subsequent quasi-homelessness, he moved to the Bay Area where he has a legacy of four generations. His Great Grandfather built thousands of homes, many along San Francisco’s Ocean Beach in the first half of the 20th century. San Francisco was always a place Sam wanted to be.


Sam says, “Writing songs was the way I occupied my mind. It was the only thing that really interested me and held my focus.” After several failed bands and a series of entry level jobs, Sam decided to strike out on his own as a solo performer. He began street performing daily in San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf, an idea he credits his Uncle with. “The first day I went out I made $60. I said to myself ‘I bet one day I’ll make $100.’ And then it became, ‘I bet I can make $200.’” In this way Sam supported himself for more than 2 years. One CD at a time, one dollar at a time. On July 4th 2012 Sam sold 100 CD’s in 3 hours. “I ran out of CD’s! I nearly had a panic attack. I knew that meant I had something, and I couldn’t believe it.”


Many of the successes and relationships Sam has had since, are directly related to the time spent busking. For instance, Sam recently joined Andy Grammer for the West Coast portion of his “Honey I’m Good Tour,” performing live in front of thousands each night as Andy’s only opening act.


Sam’s latest single “Future Me” made its debut on The Bay Area's LIVE 105.3FM. The music video followed shortly after, hitting its first 100,000 views on Facebook in only 2 days.


In addition to writing and performing for audiences, Sam’s original music is often heard in TV shows on FOX, BRAVO, MTV, SPIKE and more. He is currently writing and recording songs for The UFC. His original theme music is also part of an upcoming series on A&E.


Although he is no longer street performing, Sam maintains a busy performance schedule with over 200 shows per year, playing dozens of college events, corporate events (Oakley Sunglasses, Oracle, Red Bull, Casamigos Tequila, and many more), plus festivals, tour dates, and a weekly residency with The Ritz-Carlton San Francisco.


Sam Johnson is currently signed as both an artist and a songwriter to San Francisco's Text Me Records.



samjohnsonlive.com

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Review by Hannah Schneider


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