Checking in with longtime artists feels like catching up with old friends, and it’s one of the great joys of writing The High Note each week.
I was delighted to see singer-songwriter Samantha Crain release her seventh studio album, “Gumshoe,” May 2, 2025, via Real Kind Records.
I first started listening to Crain in 2013, back when The High Note was still a weekly newspaper column, covering her release of “Kid Face”: “Nothing childish about ‘Kid Face.”
“Ultimately, this is a record about me being a detective in my own life… looking into the mysteries of my shadow self and increasing my curiosity about reciprocal and vulnerable relationships with others,” said the 38-year-old from Shawnee, Oklahoma, via Facebook. “In order to explore the part of existence that is experienced with others, I’ve had to learn to embody flexibility and impermanence.”
This is her second album since 2017, when a series of three car accidents left her unable to use her hands. Crain was forced to write songs by dictating voice memos. A year later, as she slowly recovered, she began to play and write again, eventually crafting what became “A Small Death,” released in 2020 on Ramseur and Real Kind Records.
“Gumshoe” opens with “Dragonfly,” a psychedelic pop track that sets the tone for the album’s blend of mysticism and melody.
Crain adopts her haunting singer-songwriter sound on the second track, “Neptune Baby.” It’s the kind of introspective, emotionally rich songwriting that first drew me to her music and has earned her accolades from across the industry.
“Just a neptune baby
And I move in with all the grace of Inspector Clouseau
Spoiling the moment.”
Since I last checked in with Crain, her sound has evolved into something more alternative, with hints of Fiona Apple. That shift is evident on “Ridin’ Out the Storm.”
“Wintergreen, I’m a bet, let’s make a scene
You’re Lenny Bruce, I’m kerosene, knee-deep in a midnight star
Mini Ha ha bingo on the service road
The caller, she’s a Seminole from where the water barks”
I love her references to her Choctaw Nation heritage, which give the album deeper meaning.
“I spent so much of my life being a lone wolf, so hyper-independent, that it became this defining feature I related to deeply,” she said. “But as I started my exploration of vulnerability and reciprocity within my personal relationships, I realized there is no ‘is’ about us… we can change by the minute, and that’s okay.”
“In my ancestors’ Choctaw language we don’t have words for ‘is’ or ‘are,’ and I think that speaks to their understanding that people, animals, plants—all things—are not permanent or static. We can’t describe anything certainly, only pair it with descriptors as it appears in a moment.”
The title track is one of the strongest among the album’s 11 songs. I especially love this verse near the end:
“I’m thinking of a second-act route change
Workin’ up a liquidation
You and me up in a tree k-i-s-s-i-n-g
Forget about gathering facts
You’re the only tough nut I want to crack
I’ll spend my whole life takin’ notes
On you, my mystery”
From the punchy lyrics and Clouseau references to her expanded sonic palette—including bold horn arrangements on “B-Attitudes” and “Melatonin”—Crain fully embraces exploration on Gumshoe.
The album closes with “Old Hallicrafter Radio,” a reference to 1930s-era shortwave radios. It’s a haunting and nostalgic track, like all the songs on Gumshoe, expertly produced and looking to the past for clues.
“Steal the money from the vacation jar
I know that’s not who you really are
Have we had enough
I need some more drink in my cup”“So I think that’s the biggest thing I’ve learned over the past few years,” Crain said. “I can be a lone wolf and independent sometimes, and I can also be a part of a community and have close relationships with others. And to live in this less defined way seems much more sustainable mentally and spiritually.”
“That’s the ‘Gumshoe’ in me—needing to get to the bottom of it and, somehow, still being okay knowing there is no end… no edge. Some of this record was birthed in the deepest solitude and parts of it were created in a collaborative swirl… and that’s okay.”
There’s no mystery—Gumshoe is Samantha Crain’s finest release yet. In this 39-minute journey of self-discovery, she invites us all to find meaning in vulnerability, curiosity and connection.
Don’t miss Samantha Crain on tour: July 15 – Songbyrd Music House in Washington, D.C., July 16 at Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and July 17 at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn, New York.
Get “Gumshoe” from Samantha Crain, Bandcamp, Amazon, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Spotify, Pandora, Tidal, Deezer, and qobuz.
Favorite Tracks
Dragonfly
Neptune Baby
Dart
Riding Out The Storm
Gumshoe
B-Attitudes
Melatonin
Old Hallicrafter Radio
