Choctaw-American musician and songwriter Samantha Crain debuts new song “Pastime;” listen/share HERE and watch the video HERE. The track is from her forthcoming album, A Small Death, out July 17 via Ramseur Records/Thirty Tigers and Real Kind Records/Communion Records.
The video was direct by Crain herself, who explains “The video was meant to be a celebration of the community of the town I live in, Norman, Oklahoma, as well as a nod to the capture of improvisation. Spontaneity is often forgotten as a great tool and teller of stories and I wanted to have a day of filming the wonderful people in my community remembering and exercising the flustering and freeing practice of ‘just winging it.’”
A Small Death is the first release and artist signing for Real Kind Records, a new record label founded by UK-based musician Lucy Rose. “Samantha Crain is one of the most talented, genuinely inspired artists I’ve ever come across and to work with her is truly an honour,” Rose says of signing and working with Crain, “…[A Small Death is] such a profound and intelligent album, musically and lyrically. She’s poured every inch of herself into her music, into these songs.”
The new record finds the Oklahoma-based artist confronting decades of grief, trauma, and an incapacitating physical pain which left the singer home in bed and barely able to perform or play an instrument. “I didn’t completely die, but I feel like I died a little bit and that allowed me this new beginning,” Crain explains, “What I was trying to capture with this record, really, was a sense of reconstruction.” A Small Death is the sixth studio LP from Crain, following the release of 2017’s You Had Me At Goodbye. She won two NAMMYs (Native American Music Awards) in 2009, the Indigenous Music Award for Best Rock Album in 2019, and has toured with a range of artists including The Avett Brothers, Neutral Milk Hotel, Brandi Carlile, The Mountain Goats, Josh Ritter, First Aid Kit, Deer Tick and more.