The “Queen of Oklahoma” boasts quite a court of friends and fans who were happy to help her unveil her “Wilder Side.”
Oklahoma City singer-songwriter Carter Sampson reunited with Oklahoma musician and producer Travis Linville to create her fourth studio album, while fellow Okies John Moreland, Ali Harter, Ryan Jones, Gabriel Mor and Joe Mack made guest appearances on “Wilder Side.”
“I think we got some of the dreamy tremolo guitar feel that Travis has that I really like on it,” said Sampson, who also recorded her 2008 album “Good for the Meantime” with Linville.
“I knew that I wanted to work with him again, and then I got ahold of his last EP … ‘Sun or Moon.' It just has this really dreamy feel to it that I liked a whole lot — a lot of that's just Travis' tone and his mood — so I'm really glad that I did. And he played damn near every instrument on the record.”
Sampson, 35, will celebrate the release of “Wilder Side,” which dropped Tuesday, on Saturday night at the Blue Door.
“I really love that place. I feel really lucky and grateful that (owner) Greg Johnson has always been very encouraging of me and had me playing Woody Guthrie tributes probably before I should have been playing them,” said Carter, who filmed part of her music video for “Queen of Oklahoma,” a signature song from her 2011 album “Mockingbird Sing” at the legendary listening room. “It is such a magical building to think about all the people who have been on that stage, and it just sounds so good in there."
Recording in-house
A fan of old-school country queens like Emmylou Harris, Patsy Cline and fellow Oklahoma native Reba McEntire, Sampson unleashed her “Wilder Side” during recording sessions at Linville's tiny Norman house, and the casual setting helped offset some of her general dislike for recording.
“When you're in a studio and you're staring at a wall, there's nothing to really play off of. There's no audience … so there's no energy to feed off of. So, I like the fact that Travis is so laid-back. It definitely makes it more comfortable,” Sampson said over pizza Monday at Empire Slice House, just down the street from her Plaza District home.
“We'd have to wait for trains to go by and planes and (there was) no vocal booth or anything like that. It was just all out in his living room. … We're sitting on his couch and like Ali Harter came over a few times to sing backing vocals and brought her daughter. It was definitely relaxed, and I think made it easier, at least for me. Less stressful.”
Flocking with Songbirds
Both Sampson and Harter are counted among the Tequila Songbirds, a revolving collective of Oklahoma female songwriters that includes Kierston White, Kaitlin Butts, Camille Harp and others. Her experiences flocking with the Songbirds inspired the title track for “Wilder Side” as well as Sampson's rollicking “Holy Mother,” which features Harter's harmony vocals.
“I kind of wrote ‘Wilder Side' for my alter ego. I have some girlfriends that we have alter ego names so if we go out and get a little too drunk and do something stupid we can blame it on them and it's not us,” Sampson said, laughingly revealing that her alter ego is named “Curtis.” “ ‘Holy Mother' is the more rowdy drinking song that was sort of influenced by Ali Harter and those girls in Tequila Songbirds. We would get together and play and just have way too much fun. … and I feel like for the first time I have an awesome group of women musicians in my life.
“I feel like in the past, there has been some cattiness and competition — and it's bound to happen — but it feels like the group of women that are playing right now have each others' backs and we're friends. And that's how it should be because we're all doing the same thing. We should all help each other out.”
Singing of ‘heartbreak and highways'
Although she started recording “Wilder Side” last winter — “it took longer than I wanted it to; it always does,” she said — Sampson penned the 10 original songs during a yearlong span when she went through a breakup and moved back to Oklahoma from Arkansas. She said the album's overarching theme is “heartbreak and highways.”
“Definitely the older I get, the more truthful I get. I feel like when I first started writing I would just make up stories or write about something that didn't affect me,” said Sampson, who has been penning songs and playing guitar since she was 15. “When you think about John Moreland, for example, he's brutally honest to the point where sometimes you're like, ugh, it's heartbreaking. But that's what's touching. That's what, to me, a song should be, so I try to do that.”
Moreland lent his mournful vocals to her solemn road song “Highway Rider” and offered encouraging feedback on her achingly vulnerable track “Take Me Home with You.” She said she was happy to have so many Oklahoma musicians as well as so many music fans help her with “Wilder Side," the second Kickstarter-funded album Sampson has produced.
More than 200 fans pledged a total of $14,000 for the album and her fall acoustic EP “33.”
"It's really truly the only way that I could have done it. It's so expensive. Even doing it in somebody's tiny house, there's so many different components to it,” she said. “It was such an amazing feeling to know that those people … are willing to support me so much.”
During the yearlong process of capturing her “Wilder Side,” Sampson also found encouragement on the festival circuit. With some money her mother gave her for Christmas, she applied to several festival songwriting contests last year, placing in two and winning the 2015 Chris Austin Songwriting Competition, part of the MerleFest Music Festival in Wilkesboro, N.C., with her acoustic anthem “Wild Bird," one of the tracks from "Wilder Side."
“I had Peter Rowan, one of the greats of bluegrass, literally sitting where you are, judging, taking notes the whole time I was playing. That part was terrifying. But it was awesome,” she said.
“I feel like singing is the most natural thing I can do. It's just always been easy for me. But I've worked really hard at playing guitar and writing songs, so it's awesome to be recognized.”
“We'd have to wait for trains to go by and planes and (there was) no vocal booth or anything like that. It was just all out in his living room. … We're sitting on his couch and like Ali Harter came over a few times to sing backing vocals and brought her daughter. It was definitely relaxed, and I think made it easier, at least for me. Less stressful.”
Flocking with Songbirds
Both Sampson and Harter are counted among the Tequila Songbirds, a revolving collective of Oklahoma female songwriters that includes Kierston White, Kaitlin Butts, Camille Harp and others. Her experiences flocking with the Songbirds inspired the title track for “Wilder Side” as well as Sampson's rollicking “Holy Mother,” which features Harter's harmony vocals.
“I kind of wrote ‘Wilder Side' for my alter ego. I have some girlfriends that we have alter ego names so if we go out and get a little too drunk and do something stupid we can blame it on them and it's not us,” Sampson said, laughingly revealing that her alter ego is named “Curtis.” “ ‘Holy Mother' is the more rowdy drinking song that was sort of influenced by Ali Harter and those girls in Tequila Songbirds. We would get together and play and just have way too much fun. … and I feel like for the first time I have an awesome group of women musicians in my life.
“I feel like in the past, there has been some cattiness and competition — and it's bound to happen — but it feels like the group of women that are playing right now have each others' backs and we're friends. And that's how it should be because we're all doing the same thing. We should all help each other out.”
Singing of ‘heartbreak and highways'
Although she started recording “Wilder Side” last winter — “it took longer than I wanted it to; it always does,” she said — Sampson penned the 10 original songs during a yearlong span when she went through a breakup and moved back to Oklahoma from Arkansas. She said the album's overarching theme is “heartbreak and highways.”
“Definitely the older I get, the more truthful I get. I feel like when I first started writing I would just make up stories or write about something that didn't affect me,” said Sampson, who has been penning songs and playing guitar since she was 15. “When you think about John Moreland, for example, he's brutally honest to the point where sometimes you're like, ugh, it's heartbreaking. But that's what's touching. That's what, to me, a song should be, so I try to do that.”
Moreland lent his mournful vocals to her solemn road song “Highway Rider” and offered encouraging feedback on her achingly vulnerable track “Take Me Home with You.” She said she was happy to have so many Oklahoma musicians as well as so many music fans help her with “Wilder Side," the second Kickstarter-funded album Sampson has produced.
More than 200 fans pledged a total of $14,000 for the album and her fall acoustic EP “33.”
"It's really truly the only way that I could have done it. It's so expensive. Even doing it in somebody's tiny house, there's so many different components to it,” she said. “It was such an amazing feeling to know that those people … are willing to support me so much.”
During the yearlong process of capturing her “Wilder Side,” Sampson also found encouragement on the festival circuit. With some money her mother gave her for Christmas, she applied to several festival songwriting contests last year, placing in two and winning the 2015 Chris Austin Songwriting Competition, part of the MerleFest Music Festival in Wilkesboro, N.C., with her acoustic anthem “Wild Bird," one of the tracks from "Wilder Side."
“I had Peter Rowan, one of the greats of bluegrass, literally sitting where you are, judging, taking notes the whole time I was playing. That part was terrifying. But it was awesome,” she said.
“I feel like singing is the most natural thing I can do. It's just always been easy for me. But I've worked really hard at playing guitar and writing songs, so it's awesome to be recognized.”
