One of the best albums of 2015, a treasure from some enchanted forest, and a voice to take you there. Samantha Crain’s songs are full of expansive melodies that veer off in unpredictable directions. She has a jazz phrasing, often breaking words into rhythmic fragments that land before and after the beat, stretching syllables or adding notes to uncover hidden nuances in her lyrics.

Vinyl Gourmet Best New Music 2015

• 180 Gram Audiophile Vinyl
• Pressed at MPO in france
• Mastered by Bernie Grundman
• 100% Analog recording, mixing and mastering
• Produced by John Vanderslice
• Gatefold Cover

Includes full album download and exclusive bonus song "Cold Hands"

Samantha Crain was raised in rural Shawnee, Oklahoma, a town whose remote location influenced her quirky, earthy interpretation of folk music. Although inspired by the sounds of her father's music collection, including Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead, an adolescent Crain took even greater solace in the music of her home state, from the rootsy Americana of Woody Guthrie to the sonic experiments of the Flaming Lips.

Produced by John Vanderslice and mastered by Bernie Grundman, this is 100% an analog recording, masters transferred directly from tape to lathe.

Under Branch & Thorn & Tree was recorded at Tiny Telephone Studios in San Francisco, with John Vanderslice (The Mountain Goats, Spoon), who also helmed last year’s Kid Face. “We recorded straight to two-inch tape on a Studer 24-track machine and mixed down to 1/2-inch tape on an Ampex machine. The pre-amps were tube and we never used a computer. Our effects were done manually through tape looping and manipulation. Most of the arrangements happened in the moment, as we recorded. My guitar and vocals are all first or second takes.”

“I don’t write protest songs in the traditional sense,” Samantha Crain says, talking about the songs on her new album, Under Branch & Thorn & Tree. “But I’m always listening to the voices of people around me. These stories are told from the perspective of the underdog, the 99% of us that are working people. They might not be literal protest songs, but the lives of the people within these songs speak at the same volume if you listen.”

These intimate vignettes are marked by Crain’s careful attention to the tiny details that often escape us, supported by the subtle musical settings she crafted with Vanderslice and the backing musicians.

Track Listing:

01. Killer
02. Kathleen
03. Elk City
04. Outside the Pale
05. You Or Mystery
06. When You Come Back
07. Big Rock
08. All In
09. If I Had A Dollar
10. Moving Day

Click here to listen to samples on AllMusic.com ♫