"Samantha amazes with her ability to weave captivating stories in melody and rhyme. With few words she breathes life into characters and situations one remembers long after the song has ended." -- Danny Faragher, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist (Ringo Starr, Peppermint Trolley Company, Camper Van Beethoven) A Los Angeles-based songwriter, Samantha Elin creates vivid characters: seekers, dreamers, men and women with hearts full of longing for something or someone. Many cling to the past, wistful for an unrelenting memory; others wait for an unknown future. These ordinary but somehow grand characters reside amidst a musical landscape of alternately catchy and somber folk, pop, rock, blues, old-timey acoustic, and styles in between. In "Weary Pilgrim," Elin sings of a nameless woman fleeing her sister's house in the dead of night, traveling by foot to the West Coast to escape mysterious family demons. With echoes of Santana, CSNY, and Brian Wilson, the layered harmonies befit the Big Sur, California setting. "Silent Still" tells of a mother's overnight vigil as she waits for word of her son, who slipped into a river during a family outing in the mountains. The lilting melody is sung by the angel-voiced Nicole Gordon, whose vocals can be heard in shows like "Brothers and Sisters" and "Friday Night Lights." There are lighter moments, as when Gordon sings the infectious ode to carefree romance "On a Lark." The song veers back and forth between fast swing and a swoony waltz. Most of the songs can't be pigeonholed. In "Heartache Diet," Elin sings country-style, somber lyrics to a jaunty '60s pop-folk melody. In "Cut the Wire," she implores a friend to cut off ties with his past and go-nowhere present that are tying him down. The melancholy melody, punctuated by Bob Gothar's plaintive slide guitar, is made more haunting by a trumpet riff that at times gives the hard-to-categorize song a Spanish feel. Aside from Gothar, who has accompanied the likes of Micky Dolenz, J.D. Souther, and Rascal Flatts' Joe Don Rooney, and appears on much of the album, the songs are also brought to life by some of the town's top session and live players, including master drummer and percussionist John Palmer (Chuck Berry, Peter Tork, Wanda Jackson); drummer Dan McNamara (Brian Wilson, Roger McGuinn); and Howard Yearwood (a seasoned former L.A., now Nashville-based, bluegrass and country guitarist), who plays a mean electric rock guitar on "She Drove (Chasing the Sun)," the story of a young man's coming of age on a wild but enlightening cross-country trip). Although Elin sings some of the songs herself, she has turned to some of the best L.A. vocalists- - like Nicole Gordon, Brad Swanson, and Hirth Martinez -- for others. A Bob Dylan discovery, Martinez, like Dylan, has a tremendous knack for phrasing and can captivate a listener with his storytelling. In the Gothar-Elin composition "Waiting for You," Martinez tells a poignant tale of a man waiting all day on a park bench for his love to arrive, watching the daytime bustle in the park "fade to a lonesome sound" as the sun begins its quick descent. Martinez penned the melody and Elin the lyrics to "Dream of a Better Day," in which Martinez sings of a downtrodden couple, whose lives intertwine in a simple twist of fate. For lyrics, credits, and more information, please go to Samantha Elin's Web site link.