Sammy Boller

The Detroit instrumental phenom enters spiritual territory with a new, deeply personal EP

- GREGORY ADAMS

A HIGHLIGHT OF Sammy Boller's 2025 was the last-minute fill-in position he took on Goo Goo Dolls' amphitheater tour, after lead guitarist Brad Fernquist came down with a shoulder injury. Playing iconic anthems like “Iris” made it the “summer of a lifetime” for Boller. By fall, though, the solo instrumentalist was ready to reroute listeners into the lush and immersive plains of his Midnight Garden EP. Boller strolls through “Spellbound” with dizzying, speaker-panning arpeggios and hammered-on accents. “The Mapmaker” merges R&B drum production with playful pizzicato. The record's “Rama Bhakti” spotlights a multi-finger approach to tapping, at least until Boller propels himself toward a busier triple-time motif and some backend shred.