In 2005, local Baltimore songwriter, Adam Trice, founded Red Sammy, which he describes as a “graveyard country band.” 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.

Graveyard country 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 the band is from Baltimore), to Faulkner and Flannery O’Conner.

“It’s freight-jumping, wedding ring-pawning music,” Baltimore City Paper.

Trice presents Red Sammy in various musical arrangements including solo, duo, and full-piece band performances. Baltimore-area musicians that perform and/or have performed in Red Sammy include: John Decker (slide/resonator guitar), Theron Melchior (bass, musical saw), Greg Humphreys (electric guitar, bass, mandolin), Tony Calato (drums and percussion), William Harder (harmonica), Julia Oat-Judge (cello), Sean Lally (electric guitar), Josh Weiss (pedal steel, electric guitar, banjo), ), Eric Friedman (keyboards, harmonica), J. Spence Holman (drums and percussion), Nick Sjostrom (drums and percussion), Katie Feild (bass guitar, concertina, vocals), Adam Trice (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, vocals).

Red Sammy captures the hope in desperation, the beauty in imperfection with honest songwriting. Life, work, hard work, disappointment, love and loss are all themes entwined in their songs.