SAM COOKE, IF YOU’RE OUT THERE, THIS ONE’S FOR YOU!

I was always intrigued by the “Classroom Instruments” segments on Jimmy Fallon’s “Tonight Show” wherein Fallon, his house band The Roots, and a guest music artist or group would all squeeze together in one of the empty hallways at NBC and play a deconstructed version of a hit song on beginner or toy instruments. The simplicity and fun of it was charming, and it reminded me of songs like “Montego Bay” by Bobby Bloom, “Down on the Corner” by Creedence Clearwater Revival, and “Up on Cripple Creek” by The Band. In essence, they were clunky, chunky choral collages of good-feels sonic fun.

Soooo, I took a stab at writing a happy, little, rhythmically percussive ditty and the song “Ol’ Sam Sends Me” emerged from that effort with lyrics forming in 2010, and music coalescing into a complete recorded demo in 2020.

While producing our 2026 incarnation of this song, it got a little bigger and bouncier than I originally recorded it, and somehow it lost the vibraslap. “Bigger and bouncier,” however, served my consistent intent to write a song that walked this precarious tightrope: to be a light, fun, upbeat song about a beat-down old soul musing in his melancholy, and finding respite, rest, and solace in the songs of his favorite singer, Sam Cooke.

Some other songs (and there are many) that have walked that same, joyfully downcast tightrope include “Waltzing Matilda,” “Loch Lomond,” “The Sloop John B,” and just about any Irish drinking song you’ll hear in an Irish pub.

If you like “Ol’ Sam Sends Me,” feel free to sing along with the “sha la las.” I know you’ll want to, that’s why they’re there.

Mike Ankelman

The lyrics and music to “Ol’ Sam Sends Me” were conceived and written by Michael Ankelman. The lyrics were written in 2010 and the music was written in 2020. Directing AI and other digital production tools, this iteration of “Ol’ Sam Sends Me” was produced, recorded, edited, and mastered by Byron Sletten and Michael Ankelman in the summer of 2026, and released to the public July 31, 2026, under the artist name “Ankelman Sletten.”