Samantha Crain is wise beyond her years. Her appearance -- youthful, diminutive, almost cherubic -- belies the intelligent singer-songwriter within. Listen to her lyrics and confident, unusual delivery and you'd swear she was a woman with twice her 21 years of age. Watch her on stage with her band, the Midnight Shivers, and you can't help but wonder -- how did a girl from Shawnee, Oklahoma, who wasn't even born until 1986, write stuff like this? And how did she develop that wonderfully strange and affected vocal style that sounds more like something out of a bygone era than from the age of mobile ring tones? These were my thoughts as I was lulled into almost comatose contentment during Crain's performance at White Water Thursday night.
The first thing you notice is her stature. This is a short girl. The stage at White Water can't be more than a foot off the floor, and when I got there, two songs into her set, the small crowd standing around towered over her. This isn't something I expected and I had to ask if this was the band or some high school opening act. But as I focused on the sounds coming from the stage any doubts that this was the band were out the window. Crain has a great voice, and it sounded right at home in the hazy, summer night atmosphere of White Water. It has a sort of resonance and harmonizes beautifully with the music mainly because it sounds almost like a musical instrument itself. Crain plays guitar and harmonica and is backed up by another guitarist, a bass player and a drummer in a spare four-piece act. They all appear to be very young but they all play with skill, delivering a nice, cohesive sound in a traditional folksy style.
Crain impresses with her easy manner and nonchalance on stage. Audience banter is clearly something that she's used to. But more impressive are the words that flow while the music's playing. "The River" tells the tale of a crazed preacher who drowns those he baptizes, and does so with a drum brush-and-harmonica sound that provides an interestingly bouncy backdrop to an odd and sinister storyline. "Traipsing Through the Aisles" has more of a light-hearted summer day feel to it, with a catchy refrain. But the highlight of Thursday night -- and I can't stress this enough -- the highlight of Thursday night -- was Crain's cover of Oasis's "Champagne Supernova." There's no topping that song in its original form. It has to be counted as among the best alternative songs of the 90s. But Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers performed it with a drum brush and a faster cadence and it became a whole other song. A very, very good song. And White Water liked it. A lot.
Crain releases a new EP July 22. The Confiscation contains only five songs, but it's worth the asking price. I would also recommend you watch for her next Little Rock appearance. I don't think we've heard the last of this girl.
-G
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