Recently making their performance debut in Grand Rapids, the throwback country outfit features members from several popular Michigan bands, led by the ‘high lonesome’ voice of Sam Hess.
Reveling in the Traditional Sound of Country Music: Sam Hess & The High Road Drifters. (Courtesy Photo)
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Led by singer and guitarist Sam Hess, who’s also a member of northern Michigan’s Silver Creek Revival, this fledgling outfit crafts its own distinctive brand of country music while leaning on a retro, classic sound.
“The ability to control and create our own brand of country music is something special, as well as recreating a lot of the great country songs myself and many others grew up on,” Hess said of Sam Hess & The High Road Drifters, which made its live performance debut in November.
“We really just want to play as much as we are able and hopefully record in 2025. If you appreciate the traditional sound of country, you will want to hear us.”
Initially formed by Hess and pedal steel guitarist Andy Travis of the West Michigan “honky-tonk country” band King Possum, the group now boasts musicians from several different regional favorites, including bassist Taylor Watson of Desmond Jones, guitarist Nick Adamson of Southbound Again and drummer Scott Veenstra of Blue Water Kings and Laura Rain & The Caesars.
Double-Duty: Sam Hess also is a member of Silver Creek Revival. (Courtesy Photo)
“Andy and I have been playing together here and there for a couple years now, bonding originally over our shared love for country music. It wasn’t until a few months ago we decided we should go forward with a true traditional country band, something we have wanted to start for a while,” said Hess, 20, who attended several different high schools but cites Big Rapids’ Galloup School of Guitar Building and Repair as his true alma mater.
“Then I met Nick Adamson through Andy. He’s one of the best Telecaster (guitar) players we could really ever ask for. Then it all kind of started rolling from there.”
Noted Travis: “Fans of bluegrass, Americana, folk and country music are going to love Sam and his authentic, high-lonesome voice as he navigates heartfelt songs he grew up listening to.”
Targeting country tunes from the 1970s, ’80s and early ’90s, along with “a large helping of retro, throwback numbers and Western themes,” the band currently is writing original material with hopes of working on its debut recording come January.
Hess, who spends most of his time in Grand Rapids, stressed that the new band remains a side project as he continues to record and perform with the Americana and indie-folk band Silver Creek Revival, which features members from Manton, Traverse City and Kalkaska.
High Road Drifters: Working on new original music. (Courtesy Photo)
“Right now, this is a side project as I still play and tour often with Silver Creek Revival. But side project is really a bad word because I love all of it so much,” Hess insisted.
“It’s very different in that we are trying to pursue a strictly ‘country’ sound whereas my other group, Silver Creek Revival, is a culmination of multiple songwriters and multiple styles.
However, they do share some things in common as country music certainly has a heavy influence on what goes on in Silver Creek Revival.”
As for The High Road Drifters, which made its performance debut in November when it played Chicago Beef Joint in Grand Rapids, the focus is “honky-tonk and in-your-face-country music with heavy steel guitars and danceable, two-step shuffle grooves,” said Travis, who also described the band as “a killer group of local all-stars.”
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