Sam on Someday Showcases Charlotte’s Talented Singer/Songwriters

Seven musicians are packed onto the Evening Muse’s stage, but the band doesn’t seem cramped or crowded. In fact, the vibe among the players is convivial as they sashay through a rocking version of iconoclastic country-rocker Mickey Newbury’s “Why You Been Gone So Long.”

Vocalist and guitarist Justin Clyde Williams sings the tune’s refrain before kicking off a round robin of solos starting with keyboardist Phil Howe’s rollicking R&B-infused run, then Emanuel Wynter’s sassy trumpet-like violin, and onto Troy Conn’s ringing liquid lead guitar.

Video of the Feb. 23 performance is from that month’s Sam on Someday show, a monthly, genre-jumping, multi-act musical performance launched by the man seen strumming acoustic guitar throughout the video: Sam Tayloe, songwriter and co-founder of Charlotte-based folk-rock band Time Sawyer. Tayloe is putting the finishing touches on the next Sam on Someday, scheduled for Petra’s on April 3.

“[It’s] a Charlotte community show, aiming to bring our music and arts folks together and strengthen our scene, while also giving a great show once a month to music lovers in our area,” writes Tayloe in an email to Queen City Nerve.

It’s also a labor of love for the Elkin-raised songwriter and musician; each show is as much a gathering of friends and peers as it is a concert.

“It’s for our community, to keep growing this [music scene], to be a part of something and just feel connected,” Tayloe says.

For each monthly musical happening, a house band plays five to seven songs with a focus on original music, although a few select covers are allowed. Unofficially named the Sam on Someday (S.O.S.) Band, it’s never the same group twice in a row, with membership rotating from one show to the next. Justin Clyde Williams will return for the upcoming Petra’s gig, joined by area musicians not present at the previous one: drummer Tim Haney, bassist Kerry Brooks, and piano player Jason Atkins, aka Greazy Keyz.

“I’m not saying [the music scene] needed some huge lightning rod, but I was hoping to get people together that hadn’t played with each other before,” Tayloe says. “Each set, ultimately, is completely different. Each time, we’re creating a one-time-only show.”

What all this variety means in practical terms is that Tayloe is planning and nurturing something that he can’t control too tightly, lest he smother the loose-knit, lightning-strikes-once experience that he’s trying to create.

“It’s a very loose structure,” says Tayloe. “ There are a lot of moving parts, but there is also fun and funny stuff in between that helps keep the audience a part of it.”

In addition to the S.O.S. Band, the next Sam on Someday will highlight seven featured performers who will each play a set of one to two original songs. For the April 3 show those featured acts include multi-disciplinary artist and musician Wild Recluse; surrealist fingerpicking folk and pop artist Coughing Dove; indie-Americana singer-songwriter Nathan Davis; pop rock performer, tunesmith and producer Joe May; and songwriter and guitarist Eric Maust. All are based in Charlotte.

Adding to the event’s familiar feel is the fact that area creatives are encouraged to come see the show, with a discounted $8 admission for local artists and musicians who wish to patronize rather than perform. General admission for the April 3 show is $12.

Tayloe estimates that the audience for each Sam on Someday in 2025, just two shows so far, has been 60% general music lovers/showgoers and 40% local musicians and artists. He feels gratified that members of each group seem to be returning to see subsequent iterations.

Singer-songwriter Ali Forrest, the artist Queen City Nerve called the city’s Best New Singer-Songwriter in our 2024 Best in the Nest issue, played three songs at the Feb. 23 show with “The Boys,” a nickname she affectionately bestows upon her bandmates guitarist Ben Burrows; bassist, guitarist and engineer Cole Covington; drummer and engineer Caleb Whitlock and guitarist Maust.

“It was so special,” Forrest says. “All of us felt supported and we made a whole bunch of new musician friends. It was truly a fun night of musicians doing their thing together. We were stoked to do the show, and all of us who will be in town for the next one are planning to go hang out.”

From Sam on Sunday to Sam on Someday

Long before the first live and in-person Sam on Someday launched in July 2021, there was Sam on Sunday, conceived in the isolating depths of quarantine amidst the COVID pandemic.

Tayloe went online live every Sunday during the pandemic, playing songs and connecting with shut-in viewers one-on-one. He describes the show as his attempt to lighten people’s loads during trying times. Eventually, other artists added their quarantined on-camera musical performances to the mix.

“We had a lot of musicians that I had no business working with sending me videos of them playing their great music,” says Tayloe, who lists North Carolina singer-songwriter Abigail Dowd, Charlotte R&B artist Jason Jet, Ed Jurdi (Band of Heathens) and Isaac Gibson (49 Winchester) among the major artists who contributed to Sam on Sunday.

After the quarantine was lifted, Tayloe decided to bring the show into recently reopened venues, starting in July 2021.

“It felt like the natural next step, getting back into the world and making [the experience] more tactile and real,” Tayloe says. “My favorite part of music is to get out and play with other folks. So it seems like a natural evolution.”

So Sam on Sunday became Sam on Someday.

“That’s because it can happen anytime, whenever we’re ready to go,” Tayloe notes.

As the Petra’s show approaches, Tayloe notes that he’s not overwhelmed with mounting the latest version of his musical moving feast, even though he’s juggling it with his popular band. In September 2024, Time Sawyer, a name that harkens to the rocking alt-folk-rock outfit’s origins in the bluegrass-haunted Yadkin Valley where Tayloe grew up, released its latest of eight albums, Honest Effort.

Tayloe and his band have also been involved in Reevestock, a concert launched in 2010 to revitalize Tayloe’s hometown of Elkin and to reopen its historic Reeves Theater. Those goals have long since been achieved, and the event has ended. But the Reevestock team is launching a new charity/fundraising event for Elkin this year.

Despite all his irons in the fire, Tayloe is concentrating on creating with Sam on Someday a fun and loving environment that brings people together.

“The hard part is just relaxing and being in the moment,” offers Tayloe, noting that there is never any rehearsal time for such a relaxed, go-with-the flow event. “The point of this show is fun, for the audience and for us. And the most fun [for a musician] is getting out there and crushing it.”

He says he still gets more nervous than he’d like to admit before performing live, but Sam on Someday just feels like something different, serving as a reminder to himself that he loves making music, hanging out with friends and making new ones.

Read more: Jade Moore Helps Rejuvenate Gastonia Music Scene at The Rooster

Tayloe hopes (and has seen it happen) that people will come out to the monthly shows initially for the eclectic multi-genre mix of music and artists, but keep coming back to become part of a growing community, and a welcoming group of friends.