OKLAHOMA CITY – For all of my well-documented love of the experimental, my infatuation with the avant garde, and my near obsession with the progressively complex, the truth is there’s just nothing in the world better than a simple, straightforward song when it’s pulled off properly.
The barest-bones beauty of raw, human songwriting, just a few chords, a little melody, and some words from the heart, just can’t be beaten. It’s history, it’s nature, and it’s the singular lifeblood of everything that music can be.
We’re always hearing people lob around that most banal of music takes, lamenting the over-produced, under-written pop of the moment with a wholly unoriginal, “they don’t make ‘em like they used to” attitude. But that’s just not true.
Great, traditional, honest songwriting might not exactly be topping the charts right now, but who cares about the charts?
We’ve got a wealth of poignant, powerful songwriting right here in Oklahoma, and that kind of no-frills, soul-baring song craft is on display right now in a trio of brand new releases.
Carter J. Wright – ‘Live on the Roof of Tiger Studios’
If you ever needed definitive proof that yes, actually, they do make ‘em like they used to, then Carter Wright is your man.
With as stripped-back of an acoustic, country-folk sound as can be had – relying entirely on a hard-strummed steel-string and the natural grit and drawl of his own voice – Wright sloughed off practically every production pretense and took his songs up to the roof.
He climbed up on top of Tiger Studios with his guitarist buddy (and Five Mile Hollow bandmate) Austin Hart and engineer (and Shanti punk-rocker) Mitchell Thompson and barreled through some dirt-rusted, heart-ragged folk songs in the open air.
The songs on “Live from the Roof…” are lived-in stories of the classic folk subjects, with mistakes, regrets, redemptions, and even some gunfighting thrown in for good measure.
But most of all, they’re a balm for the tightly regulated social media bait that dominates a lot of young songwriting lately. Too many aspirers seem to be writing songs just so they can over enunciate the lyrics and write them on the screen in reels to maximize relatability and guarantee millions of “this is so me” shares.
Wright doesn’t seem to care much for any of that, nor is he attempting the overwrought, performative politicism of a lot of other precision-angered wannabe Woodys scouring the day’s headlines to sing the news.
No, Wright’s songs are just songs, sturdy and well-drawn, speeding and slowing and colliding on his own time. Tracks like “Two Theives” and “By ‘n’ By” are as good as any southern-folk song has been in decades, and it’s entirely because of the ease and earnestness that he allows into them.
They’re not just the kinds of songs you sing around a campfire, they’re the kinds of songs you write around a campfire, strumming idly and crashing some words together as they come to you.
Trust me, the next time you hear someone complain about “kids these days” not understanding good, simple songwriting, toss this album in their face and shut them up.
“Live on the Roof of Tiger Studios” by Carter J. Wright is streaming now.
Haley Salthouse – ‘Emelyn Street Hymns’
But not all pure, honest storytelling in song comes in the form of gritty, traditional country-folk.
Norman-based newcomer Haley Salthouse is here to prove that it can also come in the form of poised, piano-driven diary entries of refreshing honesty and surprising depth.
Throughout the endearingly home-recorded “Emelyn Street Hymns,” her debut EP, Salthouse utilizes little more than a punchy, bold piano and her own impressive voice, though she employs it in a number of increasingly effective ways, from big-interval high notes to hushed intimacy and even to build in her own rich, accompanying harmonies.
It’s already a feat just to craft some solid songs out of so much simplicity, but Salthouse’s songwriting seems to reach so effortlessly beyond solid to offer something by turns mature, clever, and starkly real.
Rather than falling into the easy holes of modern piano-pop, these “hymns” feel like they could have more readily come out of the 70s, when the great singer-songwriters were weaving snaking, creative melodies across much broader, widescreen canvases, spinning personal yarns of heartbreak and resolve with just a touch of theatricality.
There’s more than a little Carole King here and even some definite, welcome moments of Joni, hinting at a penchant for that kind of grander, bygone songwriter storytelling that can turn an earnest, minimalist piano tune into something sweeping and lush.
In fact, if you listen closely behind Salthouse’s simple, self-recorded piano and voice, it’s easy to almost hear a whole orchestra swelling up in each track.
“Emelyn Street Hymns” by Haley Salthouse is available now exclusively on Bandcamp with a wider streaming release planned for later this year.
Samantha Crain & First Aid Kit – ‘Pott County Call Return’
If any Oklahoman in the past decade-plus has effectively proven just how powerful a tight, honest song can be – or how far it can carry you – it’s surely Samantha Crain.
She’s spun her untouchable talent for marrying a heart-shaking melody with a heart-breaking lyric into a legitimately global career, and along the way she’s helped to elevate the entire field of Okie songwriting with an uncompromising outlook and a gift for electric collaboration.
Crain’s newest single sees a further extension of one of those always-evolving collabs as she’s joined again by her friends First Aid Kit, both for harmonies and for emotional backup, and it makes for one of her deepest and most powerful offerings yet.
An ode to her home of Pottawatomie County, but more accurately, to the lives, loves, and devastating losses of her past and their continual vibrations into the present, “Pott County Call Return” is as firm a testament as any to the ability of a few chords and a hummable melody to cut right to the core.
With just a straightforward, stomping beat and a few crackling, overdriven guitars, there’s loads of Neil Young, yes, but even more Jason Molina, the Young-faithful songwriting legend that led Songs:Ohia and The Magnolia Electric Co. with Neil’s fuzzy abandon as a backdrop for the same kind of mournful longing that Crain is exorcising here.
But “Pott County” isn’t just an example of the pure power of a simple song. It’s a tribute to it.
It’s about embedded memories and hometown haunts and the ever-quicker changing of the seasons, but it’s also about how a simple song can strike you and how important it is to let it, and maybe above everything, how life-affirming it is to keep singing for someone even when they’re gone.
“Pott County Call Return” by Samantha Crain and First Aid Kit is streaming now.
You can find out about local music and performance happenings in the OKC metro weekly in this music column by Brett Fieldcamp. | Brought to you by True Sky Credit Union.
Brett Fieldcamp is the owner and Editor in Chief of Oklahoma City Free Press. He has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly two decades and served as Arts & Entertainment Editor before purchasing the company from founder Brett Dickerson in 2026.
He is also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
