Kim Helmuth
Vocals
Kim lives out front, working a room like it owes her money: part soul shout, part late-night confession, all R&B phrasing.
About
Six friends,
one long overdue reunion.
"We kept saying we should play together. Eventually we stopped saying it."
Special Lady Friend came together in October 2026, when six friends from high school and college finally got themselves in the same room with their instruments. Most of them came up through Tam High, and the shorthand from those years never went away.
Everyone brings their own thing to it: voices schooled in soul and R&B, a funk bass instinct, a rock guitarist's appetite, a drummer who lives in the pocket, and a mandolin player whose strings make it feel like the obvious missing piece. What they share is a genuine, slightly obsessive love of this music and the urge to play it loud for people who feel the same way.
Formed
October 2026
Where
Sonoma, CA
Roots
Tam High
Setlist
110 songs
The players
Meet the band
Tiana Cicco
Vocals
Tiana trades lines and harmonies all night, the other half of a front line built for soul.
Julian Hoover
Guitar
Julian handles the six strings: chicken-picked funk one minute, a slow blues burn the next.
Ian Benedetti
Bass
Ian holds down the low end, the reason the whole thing has a pocket to sit in.
Marshall Kleiber
Drums
Marshall is the engine room: greasy backbeats, second-line shuffles, and a hi-hat that never lies.
Ray Sumser
Mandolin & Guitar
Ray brings the wildcard: mandolin strings and rhythm chops that push the band somewhere unexpected.