The cover of Samantha Crain's latest album is one of the Choctaw Nation musician's earliest beading efforts. Countless beads in different shades of blue and red, yellow and white spell out Gumshoe.
"These are tiny, little beads," she says. "They don't look like anything. When you have thousands of them together, they make this very vibrant, amazing picture."
The artwork also serves as a visual proxy for Crain's latest personal undertaking. The self-described lone wolf has typically shied away from collaboration, preferring the comfort of her own creative choices. On Gumshoe, she's challenging those notions, opening up her process to a full band to write and record the album.
"You do need to be invested in people in your life and in your community and lean into that vulnerability and reciprocity in those relationships," she says.
In today's session, Crain talks about her embrace of community; about her efforts to deepen her understanding of the Choctaw language; and how one of the tracks on Gumshoe accidentally ended up on the award-winning television series Reservation Dogs.
This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Miguel Perez. Our senior producer is Kimberly Junod and our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.
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