It’s a welcome return to Samantha Crain, a singer-songwriter who is a favourite of the Irish music-loving community. Her show in the upstairs room at the iconic Whelan’s venue is sold out and the crowd is asked to move forward by Samantha in order that those at the back of the room have an opportunity of seeing the actual stage. Her small frame is something that she mentions in urging the crowd to the lip of the stage and her easy presence is a testament of the natural communication skills that shines through.
Samantha appears with just her guitar, which suffered damage to the neck on the plane flight across the ocean. She tunes between songs and highlights the lower E-String that keeps ‘wandering’ – her narrative always engaging and informative. She speaks of feeling at home in Ireland and that her understanding of the bond between her people and this country runs deep. Samantha is promoting her excellent GUMSHOE album from last year, and she performs Neptune Baby, Dart, Gumshoe, B-Attitudes (a song for her grandmother and the house she lived in for 60 years), and all are taken as firm favourites already among the fans, who sing along on some of the choruses.
An Echo is beautifully haunting, as is the rendition of Joey from the A SMALL DEATH album of 2020. When We Remain is a song that she sings in her native Choctaw language and Samantha speaks movingly regarding the Trail Of Tears that saw her ancestors displaced from their lands in Mississippi and forced to move to a reservation in Oklahoma, where she grew up. The Irish Plantations come to mind when it comes to a displaced people, she also speaks of the close bond between the Irish people and the Choctaw nation, forged during the Famine when her people donated money to aid with the starvation that took the lives of so many.
UNDER BRANCH AND THORN AND TREE is an album that appeared back in 2015. Tonight Samantha plays the very atmospheric Elk City which traces the life of a young girl who gets stuck in an Oklahoma town, trying to make a better life, but slowly sinking down, along with the recession. Her fingerstyle playing is aligned closely to the chord structure on the Richard Thompson classic Vincent Black Lightning. She jokes of trying to learn the original song, but failing on the basis that Richard Thompson “has fifteen fingers.”
Bloomsday is introduced as her only happy song, and the reference to James Joyce is well received by the packed room. Her persona is quietly self-assured throughout and she created a warm sense of intimacy in the venue. She played for close on seventy minutes, leaving the stage with no encore, but it didn’t seem to matter; the sense of kinship from stage to audience was palpable and nobody felt short-changed by the stripped back solo performance. Come back soon, Samantha, a warm welcome is always assured.
PS: Just a few lines about the support act tonight, Podge Lane from Co. Cork. Recently returned from travelling in the USA, he is promoting a new album, LESS OF ME. His confident stage presence and easy banter with the audience has him warming up the atmosphere as he plays new songs Kicking Up Dust, Broken Door and The Story from the new release. He sings out with plenty of energy and his ease on guitar and harmonica go down very well. He closes his set with Ghost, a song about singing on the road and trying to make a living as a gigging musician. It’s always encouraging to see venues like Whelan’s giving local Irish artist the opportunity to play their music and Podge certainly took his chance with enthusiasm and a strong performance.
Review and photo by Paul McGee