In 2005, local Baltimore songwriter, Adam Trice, founded the graveyard country rock band, Red Sammy. The band name, a reference to Flannery O'Connor's story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find" (1955), is a perfect pairing for the band's dark and menacing style.
Red Sammy draws upon a variety of both literary and musical influences including Flannery O'Connor, Ernest Hemingway, Anton Chekhov, William Faulkner, William Carlos Williams, Gerald Stern, Alejandro Escovedo, Tom Waits, Neil Young, The Pixies, Iggy Pop and The Stooges, Johnny Cash.
Graveyard Country Rock Music is like a Jackson Pollock black pouring, or a Robert Motherwell elegy. It is imbued with Garcia Lorca’s duende: “black sounds are the mystery.” Gritty, stark storytelling, part southwest rock, part Cash and Escovedo. Sparse, but accessible, there’s a thread that runs through the music, from Hawthorne and Poe (fitting, since we’re from Baltimore), to Faulkner and Flannery O’Conner.
"It's freight-jumping, wedding ring-pawning music," Baltimore City Paper.
Airplay on RADIO FREE TEXAS INTERNET RADIO (Make a Request)
Best Reading for Fall 2009 (Books of Poetry) Montserrat Review
In Places with Bad Lighting On-Air Interview and Reading (The Signal 88.1 FM WYPR)
Dog Hang Low Reviewed in August 2009 Issue of Baltimore Magazine
Red Sammy To Perform at Denver Post Underground Music Showcase!!!
On-Air Interview: (WNCW-FM Spindale, North Carolina)
On-Air Interview: (Umbrella Radio: Arts and Letters)
On-Air Interview: (The Signal 88.1 FM WYPR)
Live From Mobtown Studios (Click and Take a Listen to the Tunes!)
Panoramic Blog ...Live From Record Release Show @ Mobtown Studios
Sophomore record release, Dog Hang Low...Available Online @ CD BABY
Dog Hang Low : Red Sammy's Adam Trice crafts shambling roots rock on a foundation of hushed melancholia. Although his gravelly voice suggests a Dylan influence, his slow-burn delivery points to something more measured. The lyrics don't tumble out so much as they escape, buoyed by Katie Feild's excellent harmony vocals, Josh Weiss's guitar and banjo, and Theron Melchior's musical saw.
John Lewis, Baltimore Magazine, 2009
"Don't be afraid to try something new...Red Sammy is brilliant,"
Ricardo Baca, Denver Post, 2009
"Singer/songwriter Adam Trice and his crew create finely honed, melancholy roots rock. Trice’s raspy baritone rides herd on quiet, ambling country rock, creating the perfect dusky atmosphere for the brooding tunes...tracks like “Songbird,” “Turn Away” and “Lord Don’t Break My Back” keep the mood both tuneful and mournful. If the band had appeared during the heyday of No Depression, it would have deservedly been a minor star. As it stands, Red Sammy certainly deserves attention on the strength of the music found here,"
"Cool, soft, understated pop with subtle haunting qualities. Red Sammy was created by singer/songwriter Adam Trice who has a voice that sounds not unlike a very young Leonard Cohen...we can almost guarantee that after hearing "(Shine) Like An Empty Prison" and "Postmark My Apologies" they will be resonating in your head for months and/or years to come. Other favorites include "Songbird" and "Lord Don't Break My Back." Good stuff, solid. (Rating: 5)"
"...Trice husks and growls over melodic and brooding, intense and hypnotic backing from his band mates, in which Josh Weiss’s electric guitar stands out as it chimes out the melody. Trice tells tales of everyday darkness and despair while sounding like a man who gargles gravel in pints of bourbon. Nonetheless he does offer hope of at least some sort of tomorrow, even if it’s not necessarily a better one or an easy one to get to.
The band turns it up from time to time, as on “Lord Don’t Break My Back” but in general it’s all quietly intense stuff with a real raw power to the performances, and in Trice the band have a major songwriter who bears comparison with Malcolm Holcombe or Nick Cave. Not for the fainthearted perhaps but connoisseurs of the night should acquire forthwith,"
"Dog Hang Low is a pleasing, mellow offering on this stripped down, accessible album,"
"...a sound that evokes windswept prairies, tangles of tumbleweed and rushing rivers Red Sammy's songs are a perfect musical backdrop to O'Connor's novels and short stories.
The band have just released their sophomore album, Dog Hang Low, eight haunting stripped back tracks of downbeat death country that crackle and spit like a campsite fire. Eight dark and intimate tales of the trials and tribulations of life, love and loss that are part Whiskeytown, part Neil Young and part Tom Waits,"
