Kid Face
Samantha Crain\'s roots are in rural Shawnee, Okla., where the young musician dreamed of the worlds that Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie and home-state heroes The Flaming Lips sang about. Now 26 and on her third album, Crain continues to grow her songwriting with a literary flair that turns a simple acoustic number like \"Taught to Lie\" into a transcendent tune about personal identity. A small band emerges for the stalking, minor-key lurch of \"For the Miner\" (think *On the Beach*–era Neil Young), where Crain captures a vibe that goes beyond the lyrics\' simple but effective rhetorical questions. Most revealing is \"Churchill,\" a confessional tune that leaves the lines \"My whole life I thought I was an opportunist, but I\'m not\" in full view; it\'s an open wound that only time can heal. The therapeutic value of this exercise will attract those also in an existential crisis, provided they hear of this emerging artist. Crain continues to tour consistently; it\'s time to listen.
Produced by John Vanderslice in San Francisco at Tiny Telephone and engineered and mixed by Jacob Winik. Mastered by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering. All analog recording and mixing. John Calvin Abney, Kyle Reid, Brine Webb, Daniel Foulks, Anne Lillis, and Anna Ash contributed to the album. This album was released in Europe and UK by Full Time Hobby Records on January 13, 2014. PASTE Magazine gave the album an 8.8 with high praise. Rolling Stone Magazine, SPIN, NME, the Guardian, and No Depression all reviewed the album highly as well. The song "For the Miner" on this album was written for Jason Molina shortly before his death. A music video for the song "Never Going Back" was produced by Lamar + Nik.
On “Never Going Back,” the opening track from Samantha Crain’s third LP Kid Face, she croons, “I had a deal with man and…
<p>Samantha Crain's sparse third album is heavy both on misery and poetic charm, writes <strong>Neil Spencer</strong></p>
Drawing colour from country and Appalachian traditions while echoing the world-weary moods of singer-songwriters like Karen Dalton, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson and Townes Van Zandt, the third album from Oklahoma’s Samantha Crain doesn’t surprise musically. Kid Face constructs its world carefully and deliberately, but although like the disclosure of a private world still feels immediate.