ROUTES & BRANCHES

DEPARTURES

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Samantha Crain  

"Never Going Back" from the forthcoming Kid Face (Ramseur, Feb '13)

For this Episode of our R&B Departures, we visit briefly with one of my very favorite musical voices, Samantha Crain.  I don't recall how I first became aware of Ms Crain, though I vividly recall soliciting Ramseur Records for a copy of her first widely-available EP, The Confiscation: a Musical Novella in 2008.  That year, her song "The River" landed atop my favorite songs list.  Both 2009's Songs In the Night and You (Understood) from 2010 were much more involved projects, not as immediately charming but even more rewarding to repeated airings.  

Between those two albums Samantha Crain and her band visited KRFC one afternoon on their way down to Denver.  I had the great opportunity to host them for an interview and live set.  Of course, I remember the music very fondly (and try in vain to forget my part in the chat, though I still have a copy of the session to this day).  More than anything, it left me with the valuable lesson to never fully trust an artist's online press ...

Crain plans to release Kid Face on Ramseur next February (I heard about it on PBS NewsHour online, so it must be true!).  She calls the collection her most personal work to date.    While we bide our time until then, she's released the album's first glimpse, a decidedly rootsy "Never Going Back".  She's also allowed us the following look into her musical inspirations:

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Hometown: Shawnee, OK

Favorite music as a youngster: I was obsessed with this box CD set of Simon and Garfunkel albums, I would listen to them all the time. I think at the time 3 AM Wednesday Morning was my favorite one.

Your 5 favorite albums: These change a lot for me but I think 5 albums that I always come back to again and again are Let Me Go, Let Me Go, Let Me Go by Jason Molina, After the Gold Rush by Neil Young, Deja Vu by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Sea Change by Beck, and The Bends by Radiohead

Lyric you wish you had written: "Well I've been 'fraid of changing cause I've built my life around you. But time makes you bolder, even children get older, I'm getting older too"  From "Landslide" by Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac)....I think this is just such a perfect snapshot of a clear honest moment.

Best concert you've seen: Dr. Dog on the Barn stage at Pickathon Roots Festival outside of Portland, Oregon in 2009

What's in your CD player these days: a bunch of albums from Small Houses (smallhousessing.com) and Devotion and Doubt by Richard Buckner  
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Samantha has just come off a short tour with William Elliott Whitmore where she paid a visit to Denver.  We can only hope she'll give us another chance at an interview when she tours behind Kid Face ...