Samantha Crain
The Vanguard
April 2, 2026
I first heard Samantha Crain’s music through the soundtrack of Sterlin Harjo’s 2009 film Barking Water. There are so many lovely aspects of that film, especially Richard Ray Whitman’s and Casey Camp-Horinek’s touching performances as elders (and former lovers) Frankie and Irene, who journey through rural Oklahoma so that before he dies, Frankie will meet his new grandbaby. What was most striking to me upon that first viewing, however, was the perfect pairing of Crain’s singing with the images of the Oklahoma landscape, the calibration of her resonant voice to themes of both grief and joy that run so deep in the land and its history here.
Including her first full-length album released that same year, Crain, a Shawnee, OK, native and Choctaw citizen, has released ten albums and EPs, establishing herself as a gifted storyteller, over time exploring more adventurous and pop-adjacent tunes while retaining her signature, layered vocal tone and lyrics that are grounded in this place. She has toured consistently worldwide, with acts from The Avett Brothers and Neutral Milk Hotel to Watchhouse and Brandi Carlisle, and I’ve seen and enjoyed her gigs several times. But her show at The Vanguard, her first since moving from Norman to Tulsa, felt different. The vibe was fully familiar, the crowd ardent (and, it should be said, talented—a who’s who of Tulsa arts notables), and the performance captivating.
The night kicked off with sets from Chuj Mackey and Ramsey Thornton, each performing from debut releases. Mackey’s album of songs sung entirely in Cherokee, Nasgino Image Nidayulenvi (It Started in the Woods), was released by Horton Records in 2024. Mackey is an admirer of Bob Wills and other old school country greats, and in songs such as Merle Haggard’s “Silver Wings” or his own “Tsitsutsa Tsigesv” (featured in episode four of The Lowdown) he channels the Bakersfield greats, like someone you’d hear on KVOO in the days before that AM channel surrendered to talk radio (sigh).
Ramsey Thornton, who regularly backs Ken Pomeroy (and is a banjo historian!), has a solo album, I Called It!, dropping May 15. The new songs demonstrate Thornton’s atmospheric and layered instrumentation; I particularly enjoyed the song “Dripping Coffee,” lover of morning rituals that I am. I caught a reference to the band The Innocence Mission recently on Thornton’s IG page, and that influence makes sense.
Samantha Crain opened her set with “Bloomsday,” an anthem of hope from her 2021 EP I Guess We Live Here Now. Released on the heels of 2020’s A Small Death, which plumbed traumas stemming from car accidents and related health challenges, “Bloomsday” is a call-in to the energy of new beginnings. It was a fitting choice to introduce an appearance that was more confident, more emotive, and less restrained than I’ve yet seen from Crain.
Recordings of Native singers comprised the interludes between songs, which seemed to buoy Crain as she and the band, featuring Jesse Aycock on lap steel, made their way through several new gems, such as the just-released single “Belly,” a love song with Tulsa Sound undercurrents. Other highlights came in the form of a voicemail recording from Crain’s grandmother (“Well, it’s just Granny calling...”) along with a moving rendition of “When We Remain.” Crain explained that that Choctaw-language song now has new resonance for her since, in the wake of her aunt’s death, her family spent a day in the Choctaw Nation on their land that regrettably had to be sold: a bittersweet but healing occasion.
The evening ended with an encore featuring “Joey,” which Crain dedicated to Harjo, who included the song in the first episode of his series Reservation Dogs. Along with Harjo, Ken Pomeroy, the guys from Wilderado, Kalyn Fay, and that other prominent Tulsan Ethan Hawke, the venue was packed with leaders in the local creative scene, all converging in support of truly original talent. Over the course of decades, Crain has honed her songwriting with emotional depth and even urgency while, as she admits, tending to keep to herself while not on the road. Now that she’s in Tulsa in the company of so many fans and friends, a new story begins.
