Red Sammy “Dog Hang Low” (Independent, 2009)

Graveyard country, brooding and intense

“Oh I can shine” sings Adam Trice in a battered and defiant voice that dares you to deny it on “Shine (Like An Empty Prison)”, the opening track of Red Sammy’s second album. Graveyard country is what they call their music, and not only are they right but rarely has a voice been so perfectly suited to its material. Songwriter and main man 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.

Date review added:  Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Reviewer:  Jeremy Searle
Reviewers Rating:
Related web link:  Red Sammy website