Tennessee-based singer/songwriters Sam Brooker and Ruby Amanfu craft soulful folk and R&B-inspired country-pop tunes that reflect their disparate origins. Brooker, who spent his formative years in Bowling Green, OH, met the African-born Amanfu at a writer's night in Nashville in 1999. The pair became fast friends and championed each other's music, eventually collaborating on the song "The Here and the Now." The duo scored their first hit in 2007 when the progressive bluegrass outfit the Duhks recorded a Grammy-nominated version of Amanfu's "Heaven's My Home" (Sam & Ruby's own rendition of the song appeared on the 2008 soundtrack to The Secret Life of Bees). Sam & Ruby released their debut album, The Here and the Now, on Rykodisc in 2009. ~ James Christopher Monger