EPK

"Sam the Lion IS Fort Worth. Gritty, poetic, bold, greasy, confident, and as real as you can take. Fort Worth is great songs. And man, that’s what this record gives from start to finish, wrapped around a smile, swagger, two electric guitars and a killer rhythm section.”

• Walt Wilkins

Spawned from the Texas tradition of roadhouses, honky-tonks, blues joints and dancehalls, Sam the Lion is as gritty, soulful and righteous as Funkytown itself. Sam was born in 2008 when friends and long-time collaborators Chris Allen Curtis and Ed Rogers decided to form a band and perform their own songs. The two songwriters teamed up with drummer Matthew Williams and bassist Mike Kelley and played a raucous run of shows at Fort Worth’s storied Fairmount.

In 2017 the opportunity to open a show for their friend Walt Wilkins reunited the band. This time bassist Rodger Harrison joined his old friends and, with Williams, formed the driving rhythm section that locked in the band’s trademark sound. Amanda Williams Ware joined in 2019 bringing her powerhouse vocals into the mix. Since then, Sam has built a following of friends and fans playing venues like Fort Worth Live, Lola’s and The Post at River East.

“Make It Stick” is the group’s first time to record the songs they’ve crafted and honed over the last decade. “We wanted to give people the chance to take these songs home and listen to them any way they want,” says Curtis. “We started this record in 2018 and we got stalled by COVID. When we came back to finish the project, it seemed more important than ever to get it right — to make it stick.”

Over time, the mission has remained the same. “This band is built to give us the raw horsepower to create and perform our original music in the way we conceived it,” Curtis says. “It’s a passionate band rooted in the classic guitar lineup, that encompasses all the genres that made us fall in love with music in the first place. Everyone in the band is a songwriter. Everyone is a performer. Everyone is indispensable. We love each other. We love this band. We write songs that mean something to us, and we hope they connect with you.”

“Make It Stick” is available everywhere you buy and stream music.