Crain’s creativity is rooted in her culture

Ed Power talks to American songwriter Samantha Crain about her work

SAMANTHA CRAIN didn’t cheer for the United States at the World Cup. You get the impression the Oklahoma city native would not have been terribly upset had team USA suffered a Brazil-style existential meltdown at the tournament. Crain, an upcoming songwriter touring Ireland this week, is Choctaw, with conflicted ideas about what it means to be American. She could never figuratively wrap herself in the Stars and Stripes: it would feel like a humiliation and a betrayal.

“I don’t and wouldn’t [support the USA],” she says, smiling pensively. “One of the songs I’m writing at the moment is about that very subject.”