Samantha Crain

"I need to have those times of being fully in bloom, then fully hibernating. That"s how I get my best, most genuine work," Samantha Crain says. She"s a seasonal songwriter who actively takes time not to write, and those times are the hibernation stages. Some of Crain"s songs hibernate too: the title track off her new album took twenty years to write. Crain"s writing process is like a wide-angle lens. She likes to write at the dining room table in a chair that gives her a view of the entire room. "It feels like an unplanned mood board if I need a starting point, with lots of stuff in my periphery," Crain says. That mood board produced one of my favorite albums of the year.  I first discovered Samantha Crain"s music on Reservation Dogs, one of the best shows on television ever. (I"ve also interviewed Deerlady, a phenomenal band whose music is also on the show.) Crain"s latest album is Gumshoe on Real Kind Records.