Samantha Crain, Latest Music Bar, Manchester Street, Brighton, Friday, August 7

OKLAHOMA songwriter Samantha Crain is on a determined, if at times understated, protest mission – to represent and give a voice to the downtrodden masses in her songwriting.

Upon the release of her new folk album Under Branch & Thorn & Tree, Crain emphasised her desire to tell stories "from the perspective of the underdog, the 99% of us that are working people."

While the 28 year-old, who is of Native American (Choctaw) heritage, also stated her music "might not be literal protest songs", listening to her speak today gives the impression of an artist entirely switched on to political developments (or lack of) in her home country and beyond.

“Increasingly, the voices of the marginalised populations of the world are squashed by lack of representation in government and in the media,” she says. “Complete written histories are changed by the hiding of these voices. That is reason enough for me to want to put a focus on bringing those voices to the forefront.”

And does the focus on the 99% signal a disdain for those privileged members of the very highest societies?

“As far as disdain for the richest and most powerful 1%, if they aren’t using their wealth and power to aid in the fight against economic and social inequalities – and most of them are not – then yes, you could say I have a lack of respect for them.”

The well reviewed Under Branch & Thorn & Tree - Crain’s fourth album - does not offer such overt social viewpoints. Rather, Crain subtly worked the interweaving voices of people around her into a democratic patchwork that is by turns melancholy and optimistic, and mostly features Crain alone with her guitar.

“I live in this world, so there is no need to fictionalize the stories if they are at your fingertips,” says the singer of her lyrical approach.

Was she conscious of making an album that was perhaps less personal to her, then?

“It is still deeply personal to put yourself in a completely empathetic state to write a song from someone else’s perspective," she says. "It’s good to think outside of yourself.”

Of the Oklahoma friends and family she sculpted the album around, and her home state generally, Crain says that she “feels pride in my community of people I’ve surrounded myself with. But I can’t say the same for the state’s government or the people that the majority of the state’s population have put in governing office, or the intolerance I see on racial and social levels every day.”

Oklahoma has by far the highest concentration of the Choctaw tribe, with the last census counting its population at 79,000 (the second highest, Texas, has just 24,000). Crain’s parents were, and are, an “important and active family in the tribe” according to their daughter, who herself has “always been aware of being Choctaw and proud to be as well.”

Last year, Crain staged a peaceful protest against Christina Fallin – whose mother Mary Fallin is the current governor of Oklahoma – after the former wore a Native American headdress in a photo-shoot for her band Pink Pony. Upset at this act of cultural appropriation, Crain and other Choctaws took to the side of the stage of a festival Pink Pony were playing at, bearing banners reading “don’t tread on my culture” and similar sentiments. Mary Fallin eventually issued a statement saying she didn’t “approve” of her daughter’s actions, and the furor around the episode died down. That’s not to say Crain has forgotten about it, though – today she reiterates her contempt for those who adopt Native American culture as a fashion accessory.

“Of course it’s a problem," she says. "Think about this: colonialists come over to North America. Over the next 400 years, 10 million indigenous people are killed due to disease, massacres like Wounded Knee and Sand Creek. Those same people, whose numbers are dwindling, are being told they are evil, they are heathen, they are being stripped of their identity, their culture, their language, their names.

"And now, all of a sudden people realise those cultures are beautiful and unique so they take those sacred symbols and regalia for themselves? Even though those same people that want to take those images for themselves do nothing the conversation of the mistreatment of those indigenous populations? That is pure disrespect and shows a blatant ignorance to history.

"So yes, it’s a problem.”

Starts 8pm, tickets £8/£10. Call 01273 606312.