Samantha Crain
Under Branch & Thorn & Tree
(Ramseur/Full Time Holiday)
B+
It gets lost in the state’s recent electronic and experimental uptick, but Oklahoma was always and remains the heartland of Americana. A torch once ignited by Woody Guthrie decades ago is now carried by some of the genre’s most revered names (many of them named John), and few have been as vital or recognizable Samantha Crain. She’s earned it, after all; her breakthrough record, 2013’s Kid Face, was a profoundly intimate exploration of the self, one that accrued praise from critics and purists while hurling the Shawnee native onto a broader national radar.
Yet from the opening seconds of Under Branch & Thorn & Tree, Crain’s fourth full-length record, she exhibits something her contemporaries by and large have not: a willingness to explore, whether lyrically or compositionally, the sweeping outskirts of her own ability. Nowhere is this as apparent as on opening track “Killer,” the single most engrossing statement in Crain’s burgeoning young catalog. In one fell swoop, she tackles society’s injustices with a Guthrie-esque ferocity (“Killer of land, killer you will fail / Rake the ground with the fork on your tail”) while completely reinventing her sonic domain. Save for a lone bass, there is nary a guitar to be found in the song, Crain’s distressed pleas to “keep marching” engulfed in a sea of warm, warbling synths and culminating in a breathtaking, Eno-inspired chorus.
But she makes certain not to stray too far from what got her to this point. While Under Branch & Thorn & Tree was prematurely dubbed a “protest album” by many, it deals primarily in Crain’s own personal trials and anecdotal accounts. On the sparse but affecting “All In,” she recounts the complications of an ill-fated friendship (“Water stays under the bridge and / I’ll say I feel fine”). “Elk City,” meanwhile, tells the story of a woman longing for escape, enduring a series of anchoring life events until her daughter beats her to it. And on album highlight “You or Mystery,” Crain recounts the passing of a neighbor whom she never knew and the guilt she felt when she found herself missing him. Offerings like these best demonstrate Crain’s prowess as a storyteller. It’s what made Kid Face so engaging, and she’s steadily refined — perhaps perfected — this craft in the time since.
With John Vanderslice at the helm for the second consecutive record, Under Branch & Thorn & Tree skillfully employs the elegiac string arrangements and generally pitch-perfect audio for which the producer is renowned. Meticulous care is given to each instrumental swell, each snare tap, with Crain and Vanderslice proving a befitting pair as they become more familiar with one another. It may not be the political or artistic statement that Crain, who is of Choctaw descent, is in a unique position to make (or that “Killer” and lead single “Outside the Pale” hinted at), but Under Branch & Thorn & Tree is nonetheless a necessary cog in her development as a songwriter.
“My last three albums have been so personal that I almost emptied my well of autobiographical experiences,” Crain opined in a recent interview with Oxford Karma. “I needed to learn to write from other people’s perspective because I was running out of things to write about otherwise.” Fittingly, this outward-looking disposition precipitated an inward growth in the 28-year-old, something almost incomprehensible for such a seasoned old soul. But as Crain continues her personal maturation, her musical maturation has become even more compelling. In other words: It’s easy to appreciate — even adore — Under Branch & Thorn & Tree, but its greatest asset lies in the prospect of what could potentially come after it. And that’s a good thing.
