Large Fierce Mammal

Samuel Dombey was a black man living in New Orleans following the Civil War. Times were tough in the south, but Sam continued to bring money in by digging graves. He did an excellent job and his price was much lower that the competing gravediggers in the New Orleans area. In time, the lower prices charged by Sam were beginning to affect the income of his competitors. Sam stayed busy as long as people kept dying. The competing gravediggers had to do something about Sam or be run completely out of business by him.

So begins the remarkable story of Indestructible Sam, as recounted in an article titled The Indestructible Sam Dombey of New Orleans. Click the title to read it, and you’ll learn that Mr. Dombey was remarkable in that he lived to a ripe old age in spite of all best efforts to kill him. If not for those travails, who knows how long he would have lived.

Most recently, the tale of Samuel Dombey has been musically immortalized by no less than fellow Nova Scotian Ricardo Terfry, better known by his nom de guerre of Buck 65. We LFMs are great fans of Mr. 65, and consider him to be a Dark Sentiment in his own right. His story telling skills, whether expressed musically or by way of the running commentary he regularly posts to his facebook page, are ripping yarns of the highest order, and no mistake. His own website describes him, in part:

Ricardo Terfry is Buck 65. He’s from Mt. Uniacke, Nova Scotia, which qualifies technically as the middle of nowhere. When he started making music, he was terrified that his friends would find out about it and kick his ass. That was a long time ago ….

Buck 65 travels the world alone and collects books and movies and stories that haven’t been told yet. What he has seen has depressed and inspired him ….

Buck 65 has kissed Pamela Anderson, danced with Feist, recorded with Tortoise and played air hockey with Guy Maddin. He has made music for films – from a documentary about long-haul trucking to a French porno.

Who better to rap us out than the Legendary Buck 65 with his tribute to Indestructible Sam? Nobody, that’s who.