Named in homage to the 1920s/1930s American detective story writer Dashiell Hammett, the Hammett Story Agency is a collaboration between Jay Clifton, storyteller, and Sam Collins, musician. Formed in February 2004, Hammett (for short) have performed at the Marlborough Theatre, Zoot Street bar, The Sanctuary Cafe and other venues around Brighton before becoming regular guests of The Permanent Gallery. In performance Sam provides a soundtrack (most often with a guitar style somewhere between Ry Cooder and Robert Quine) to Jay's stories, which often-as-not deal with desperate characters in tough spots. Their first recording, "Romeo, Roxana, Momo and Juliet", a forty-minute CD recording featuring two stories, was released in limited edition of 100 copies with handmade covers by Dead Seagull Press in 2006. It is currently available at Borders bookstore Brighton and The Permanent Gallery.