“I’ve been Lucky, very lucky.” Samantha Crain told me, while quietly sipping on a bit of whiskey to calm her nerves before her set at last month’s 19th Annual Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival. Her signing with Ramseur Records occurred thanks to an off-the-cuff email in which Samantha asked if she could open for the Avett Brothers in her hometown of Oklahoma. Samantha explained, “I sent an email to some link on the Avett Brothers website, and I was told that they already had someone opening, but Dolph [the Owner of Ramseur Records] liked what he heard on my MySpace, and asked for a copy of the album.”
Like most too good to be true stories, it was as easy as that- Dolph Ramseur took Samantha on as an artist as well as a client, managing her career from then on.
Now, here’s Samantha a year and some later fresh off a tour with the Avett Brothers, garnering a slew of press from publications like Paste and Rolling Stone for her new album Songs in the Night; meanwhile touring up and down the coast at music festivals near you!
Skipster: With all of the Roots and Folky festivals you’ve been playing this summer, do you ever feel pigeon-holed in the genre?
Samantha Crain: Yeah. Well. I mean, we do sometimes, but we don’t just play roots festivals. We do do some regular indie rock festivals and even played a bluegrass festival oh and a Native American music festival too, because I’m native American. At first we thought we’d get pigeonholed into only folk festivals which was a little weird for us, because we have so many electric instruments going on in the band- but it turned out that we get to play such a variety of festivals.
Skipster: Oh I didn’t realize you were Native American!
Samantha: It’s not a huge percentage, but where I live it’s pretty much all non border reservations, blended in with the cities. So where I’m from, pretty much everybody has some sort of Native American blood in them, and [the culture is] blended in with everyday normal life.
Skipster: Does that factor into your art, or influence you at all?
Samantha: Not really. There is this painter I like Fritz Scholder, he’s part Native American and didn’t grow up going to Indian schools or really in the tribe. But he’s so respected by Native American artists because he paints Native American culture from what he sees it really being, whereas a lot of Native art painted by Native Americans is very much what’s going to sell; really idealistic views of nature and stuff. People like the novelty of that, but Fritz paints stuff like Native Americans holding beer cans or wrapped in American flags- just really honest true representations.
Skipster: So speaking of art and influence, and your new album, which song are you most proud of?
Samantha: Hmm… there’s this song called “Get the Fever Out” and that was really out of the ordinary from what I usually write, and for that reason I’m proud of it- because it helped me to start stepping out of my boundaries of writing just folk ballads and stuff. There’s another song on the album, “The Dam Song” and that song’s really important for me because it’s such a simple song and I usually have a problem overanalyzing or over complicating song lyrics, but that song I literally just sat down and wrote it in ten minutes. That song to me is the closest I’ve ever gotten so far to writing something simple and honest.
Skipster: Would you say your songs are more narrative or more poetic?
Samantha: A mixture of the two, see I consider a lot of what I write to be autobiographical, but I also exaggerate a lot, so I find a lot of the songs start out being out about me, but then turn into narratives that end up being about a character of some sort.
Skipster: Alright, I’ve noticed you’ve played with some pretty amazing artists..any favorites?
Samantha: This is hard, this is hard. There’s a band on our record label we’ve played with called bombadil, that I really love. The passion behind what they do and their take on music is really interesting- and they all have such huge hearts about what they’re doing. So I really love playing with them because it’s such a fun show all the time. But then we just got off tour with the Avett Brothers- and they have really inspired me to figure out how to write really simple and honest songs, since they’re so amazing at it. I think as far as inspiring me in their art, and how hard of workers they are. Their work ethic is amazing, and they get out there and put 100% into their shows everynight even if you know — they all have familes, so despite missing them, they get out there and give 100%. They’re just so inspiring to be around, so probably the Avett Brothers.
Skipster: Their fans also, are just so nice and devoted, right?
Samantha: They’re nice, and they’re so loyal and receptive. They are true lovers of music.
Skipster: That’s Avett Nation for you.
Samantha: I know, it’s totally like a dead head thing, where they’ll start in one city and just follow them for weeks.
Skipster: Okay, so the Avetts are great, what about the Hotel Cafe Tour you were on last spring?
Samantha: (nervous laugh) I guess I don’t mind like telling the truth about it, because I don’t really care if I do it or not again, but it was weird. I did meet a lot of really cool people on the tour, some girls like Rachael Yamagata and Thao Nguyen (who I later went on to tour with after the festival for a month) – then there were some other people who…I dunno. I won’t go into.
Skipster: Eek.. Was it personality, musically or both?
Samantha: Both really. I just can’t get into that whole L.A. scene, man. I just can’t figure it out or relate to them in anyway. I know it’s this L.A. singer/songwriter scene and they’re these tastemakers, apart from bubblegum pop or whatever, but really- I feel like its the same thing except they play an instrument. Whatever. I just get a bad vibe from it. The worst though was that I couldn’t play with my own band, I had to play with a stage band, so they don’t really know the embellishments and stuff that my band can do.
Skipster: Was Ingrid Michaelson or Meiko on the tour?
Samantha: yes…(silence)..(laugh) yes- they were on the tour.
Skipster: Gotcha. Okay, lastly- what contemporary artists have you been digging lately?
Samantha Crain: I really like this guy, Cass Mccombs…wait do you know who he is.
Skipster: yessssss. “City of Brotherly Love”
Samantha Crain: Ah! No one else has heard of him, but they just say “oh okay tell me about him”. But yeah, he’s my new obsession. His music is to me, this perfect blend of Americana Roots music, with an experimental rock element that plays with it, with his echoy chamber way of recording. I saw him opening for band of horses years ago and he was so awesome.
Skipster: Well, it looks like its soundcheck time! I guess I’ll see you out there!
Samantha: Yeah! See you soon!
Listen to one of Samantha Crain’s favorite songs off of her latest album Songs in the Night below
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Scott Pollack, 2009
