Artist Presale: 5/20 at 10am
​Public on Sale: 5/22 at 10am

Samantha Fish

Samantha Fish, a leading guitarist of her generation, is known for her boldness, musicianship, and emotional depth. A multi-award-winning festival headliner, she’s celebrated for explosive live shows, fearless songwriting, and artistic command. Her second GRAMMY nomination recognizes Paper Doll, an album of nine powerful, defiant songs. With her upcoming live album, Paper Doll Live, Fish showcases the electrifying stage presence that defines her career.

“Truly, this is for the fans,” Fish says of making her first official live record. “We’ve had numerous requests over the years. Paper Doll felt so great on stage — it felt like the perfect time to showcase the band and our live show.”

Recorded at the historic The Bijou Theatre in Knoxville, Tennessee, the album bottles the kind of electricity that can’t be manufactured in a studio. The room’s natural warmth and acoustics created an ideal backdrop, elevated even further by the addition of Nashville gospel royalty The McCrary Sisters. “Their voices lifted every song,” Fish explains. “I love beautiful backing vocals — they pack an emotional punch. I’ve been a fan of them for years, so that was really special for me.”

The energy in the theater was undeniable. Fans traveled from across the country for the recording. “Our fans aren’t afraid to travel,” she says. “When we announced this show, people got excited. I think that build-up always helps make a better show.” The result is a performance that feels both celebratory and ferocious — a band fully locked in, feeding off a crowd that knows every lyric.

While Paper Doll in the studio marked a breakthrough in Fish’s self-possession — “I took everything I had and slammed it right on the table,” she said of that album — the live setting strips away polish and leaves only instinct. “There’s a fire that comes across in live performance that doesn’t always translate in studio albums,” Fish notes. “The stage lays all of that bare.”

Songs evolve in real time. Outros stretch. Faded studio endings are reborn with decisive climaxes. Tracks like “Lose You” build with relentless momentum, while “Sweet Southern Sounds” allows Fish to lean into her hypnotic North Mississippi-inspired guitar phrasing. The title track “Paper Doll” lands as a defiant feminist anthem night after night, igniting crowds with its refusal to conform. And when the band rips into a cover of “Kick Out the Jams” by MC5, the room detonates.

For Fish, the difference between studio and stage is elemental. “The studio is where you build and create your sound,” she says. “The stage is where you execute all of that. Having a crowd takes you out of your head and gives you something to play off.”

Emerging from Kansas City’s blues lineage and shaped by influences as varied as Prince, Leonard Cohen, and Mississippi Hill Country blues legends, Fish has always treated performance as her proving ground. From cold-calling bars as a teenager to headlining international festivals, she has honed a live show that balances catharsis and control, boldness and vulnerability.

With Paper Doll Live, she isn’t reinventing herself — she’s documenting what has worked all along. “I just wanted to capture what we do every night,” she says. “It wasn’t about chasing something new. It was about capturing the thing that has connected so deeply over the years.”

If Paper Doll was a declaration of artistic power, Paper Doll Live is the sound of that power unleashed — immediate, unfiltered, and impossible to ignore.

Samantha Fish

One of the most formidable guitarists of her generation, Samantha Fish deals in her own unmatched brand of bravado, bringing both mind-blowing power and extraordinary emotionality to everything she creates. Since first introducing the world to her larger-than-life talent, the multi-award-winning festival headliner has built a triumphant career whose latest milestones include earning a Grammy nomination for Death Wish Blues (her 2023 collaboration with rocker Jesse Dayton) and opening for The Rolling Stones on their final 2024 U.S. tour date. On her new album Paper Doll, Fish offers up nine powerhouse songs that hit with an unstoppable force, each delivered with an exquisite dose of illuminating insight, soul-soothing empathy, and—above all—newly heightened clarity of vision. “It’s taken me years to finally find my voice in a studio setting,” Fish admits. “But with this record I took everything I had, and slammed it right on the table.”  

Fish’s first-ever album recorded with her touring band, Paper Doll takes its title from the first song the Kansas City-bred musician penned for the LP: a raw yet reflective battle cry that perfectly encapsulates the album’s spirit of unapologetic defiance. “That song’s a feminist anthem in a way—but then again, every song’s a feminist anthem when you’re a woman writing from your own experience,” says Fish. “It’s about rebelling against other people’s expectations of who you’re supposed to be, which feels pretty relevant for the times we’re living in right now.”

Recorded at The Orb in Austin and Savannah Studios in L.A., Paper Doll marks the latest entry in an uncompromising and endlessly adventurous catalog that’s found her working with luminaries like Jon Spencer of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion as well as Luther Dickinson (co-founder of North Mississippi Allstars and former member of the Black Crowes). This time around, Fish reunited with Detroit garage-rock icon Bobby Harlow, who also produced her 2017 LP Chills & Fever. “When I look back on Chills & Fever I realize that Bobby was pushing me into some cool and dangerous places, but at that phase in my life I was holding back a bit,” she says. “Now I’m at a point where I’m ready to give people something totally unexpected, something that breaks the pop formula and really takes its time to tell a story with the guitar playing.”

For help in shaping Paper Doll’s magnificently rowdy but nuanced sound, Fish joined forces with bandmates Ron Johnson (bass), Jamie Douglass (drums), and Mickey Finn (keys), cutting most of the album in the midst of a grueling touring schedule that included a run of dates with Slash on the legendary guitarist’s S.E.R.P.E.N.T. festival in summer 2024. “I’d never made a record on the road like that,” Fish reveals. “Even though it was so intense, it felt good to keep up the momentum from the live show. It helped us make an album that’s got a real living, breathing pulse to it.”

A potent balance of catharsis and introspection, boldness and vulnerability, Paper Doll opens on the sublimely moody riffs of “I’m Done Runnin’”—an exhilarating statement of self-reliance, expressed with unshakable self-possession (from the bridge: “When I look in the mirror, staring at the unknown/The world’s not getting clearer, but I like where I’m goin’”). “It’s about pushing forward even when life knocks you down, because you know what you want,” Fish explains. One of several songs partly composed with her longtime co-writer Jim McCormick (a multi-platinum hitmaker whose credits also include Luke Bryan and Tim McGraw), “I’m Done Runnin’” draws much of its impact from Fish’s deepened confidence in her vocal prowess. “Singing live onstage is one thing, but learning how to bring that energy into the studio is a whole different beast,” she points out.

Another track steeped in fiery attitude and hard-won self-assurance, “Lose You” kicks into a breakneck pace as Fish confronts a noncommittal paramour, adorning her takedown with a blazing guitar solo and the beguiling harmonies of backup singers D. Scaife, Keo, and Gabbi Beauvais. “It’s a song about taking control and calling the shots in a relationship,” says Fish. “It’s my way of saying, ‘I’m on fire and you’re not, so what are you gonna do about it?’” Later, on the wildly fun “Rusty Razor,” Paper Doll goes scorched earth with a brutally catchy tirade against life’s infinite injustices, amping up the track’s pure punk exuberance with the help of guest vocalist Mick Collins (co-founder of seminal Detroit bands The Gories and The Dirtbombs). “The older you get, the more you can become numb to all the bad shit that happens in life—whether it’s friends passing away before their time, or working so hard and never getting to where you want to be,” says Fish. “But the truth is, we should never get used to our hearts being broken like that.”

Although a feverish intensity fuels much of Paper Doll, the album drifts into a dreamlike languor on songs like “Fortune Teller” (a psych-blues slow-burner driven by a particularly spellbinding vocal turn from Fish). Meanwhile, “Sweet Southern Sounds” unfolds in smoldering riffs and lush organ melodies, ultimately taking the form of a soul-searching epic that turns gloriously frenetic in its final moments. Co-written with fellow New Orleans-based singer/songwriter Anders Osborne, the result is a gripping meditation on a tension all too familiar to those fiercely devoted to their passion. “It’s an anthem about being on the road and feeling guilty about not prioritizing the people in your life,” says Fish. “It’s hard to find that balance between taking care of your relationships and dedicating yourself to your music, and there’s definitely a tinge of heartache to that song.”

A consummate music obsessive who lists such eclectic artists as Prince, Leonard Cohen, and Black Sabbath among her influences, Fish found herself especially fascinated with Delta blues heroes like Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside in the writing of Paper Doll. “I love how in a lot of Mississippi Hill Country blues there’s a drone that happens on the low notes and keeps you hypnotized throughout the song,” she says. “A lot of the guitar work on this record is inspired by that style of playing—and then from there it explodes in all different directions, from rock & roll to soul to pop.” In sculpting such an expansive body of work, Fish found an ideal creative partner in Harlow, who also co-wrote a number of songs on Paper Doll. “I can be a perfectionist when it comes to recording, and it was cool to have Bobby around to stop from me trying to robotically hit the exact note over and over,” she says. And as a born performer who got her start by thumbing through the phone book and cold-calling local bars for gigs in her mid-teens, Fish crafted every song on Paper Doll with an eye toward her incendiary live show. “The main goal is to make great songs that tap into whatever I’m feeling at the moment, but at the same time I’m asking, ‘How is this going to feel live?’” she says. “I’m always thinking about how to add to our arsenal of songs and put together an amazing show for when we’re back out on the road.”

Arguably her most accomplished work to date, Paper Doll emerged from Fish’s deliberate embracing of the ineffable musical gifts she’s cultivated almost her entire life. “When we started working on this record I asked myself, ‘What are my superpowers?’ I wanted to lean into my strengths in a way I never completely had before, to make a big guitar album with some epic performances and really sing my ass off,” she says. “I ended up pouring so much emotion into all the songs, and I hope they help people feel fired up and ready to take on anything that comes their way. I’d love for this record to be somebody’s jet fuel.”

Samantha Fish and Jesse Dayton

The first-ever collaborative album from Samantha Fish and Jesse Dayton, Death Wish Blues is a body of work born from a shared passion for pushing the limits of blues music. As one of the most dynamic forces in the blues world today, Fish has made her name as a multi-award-winning festival headliner who captivates crowds with her explosive yet elegant guitar work, delivering an unbridled form of blues-rock that defies all genre boundaries. Dayton, meanwhile, boasts an extraordinary background that includes recording with the likes of Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings, touring as a guitarist for seminal punk band X, working with Rob Zombie on the soundtracks for his iconic horror films, and releasing a series of acclaimed solo albums. Produced by the legendary Jon Spencer of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Death Wish Blues ultimately melds their eclectic sensibilities into a batch of songs both emotionally potent and wildly combustible.

As Fish reveals, the making of Death Wish Blues marked the culmination of a musical connection forged in her hometown of Kansas City over a decade ago. “It was always a big deal when Jesse came through town to a play a show—we first met when I was 20, and I kept up with him through the years,” Fish says of the Beaumont, Texas-bred musician. “I’d been wanting to do a collaborative project for a while and went to see Jesse perform in New Orleans, and right away I knew he was the guy. We got together and had this vision of making something of an alt-blues record, but it turned out to be so much more exciting and layered than I ever imagined.”

The follow-up to Fish and Dayton’s 2022 EP Stardust Sessions—a three-song effort featuring covers of classic tracks like Townes Van Zandt’s “I’ll Be Here In The Morning”—Death Wish Blues took shape at Applehead Recording & Production in Woodstock, a studio situated on a 17-acre farm once home to The Band’s Rick Danko. Over the course of 10 frenetic days, the two musicians joined forces with bassist Kendall Wind, keyboardist Mickey Finn, and drummer Aaron Johnston, cutting most of the album live and unleashing a bold collision of blues, soul, punk, funk, and fantastically greasy rock-and-roll. With Fish and Dayton sharing vocal and guitar duties, the sonic power of each track is exponentially magnified by Spencer’s production work, endlessly tapping into the rule-breaking ingenuity that’s made him a cult hero. “Jon’s indie-rock royalty and he’s always been ahead of the game as far as moving the blues forward,” says Dayton. “For this album we wanted to keep everything blues-based, with a lot of inspiration from people like Albert King and Magic Sam on the lead-guitar parts, but we also wanted to have fun with that and take it somewhere new and different and way outside our wheelhouse.”

One of the first songs that Fish and Dayton wrote together, the album-opening “Death Wish” immediately established the free-flowing nature of their collaboration. “Samantha sent me that melody and I went into my writing room and started coming up with some lyrics inspired by all these true-crime documentaries I’d been watching,” Dayton recalls. “It turned into a song about men taking advantage of women, and I knew that Samantha could really chew on those lyrics and sing them with a lot of attitude.” Anchored by a hot-tempered vocal performance from Fish, the result is a prime introduction to Death Wish Blues’ incendiary sound, at turns gritty, exhilarating, and indelibly hypnotic. Later, on “Riders,” Fish and Dayton offer up a ferociously groove-heavy track built on their fiery vocal back-and-forth, reaching a majestic frenzy in the song’s final moments. “‘Riders’ is about being musicians and troubadours and having one-night stands with whatever city you happen to be in,” says Fish. “Every city is personified as a love interest or partner, and in the end you just move on to whatever adventure is coming up next.”

Although Death Wish Blues serves up plenty of swagger and bravado, much of the album embodies a powerfully raw sensitivity. “As we were writing some of the love songs you hear on the record, I really had to open up my heart to Samantha to get to the core of what we wanted to express,” says Dayton. “It was good for me to allow myself to be that vulnerable, and I don’t know if it’s something I would’ve been able to do when I was younger.” On “Trauma,” Fish and Dayton spin a strangely thrilling portrait of heartbreak, taking on a furious momentum as Dayton lays his pain and frustration exquisitely bare. Building a heady tension between its slow-burning verses and hard-hitting chorus, “Settle for Less” unfolds as an achingly moving meditation on self-worth. “The sentiment of that song is that if you settle for anything short of what you deserve, that’s exactly what you’re going to get,” says Fish, who co-wrote the track with her frequent collaborator Jim McCormick (Tim McGraw, Trisha Yearwood). And on “No Apology,” Death Wish Blues slips into a moment of heavy-hearted outpouring, with Fish’s graceful yet gut-punching vocals riding the line between tender longing and unapologetic self-possession. “‘No Apology’ is about fighting with the one you love and wanting to push through and make everything okay again,” says Fish. “It’s a love song but sort of twisted, because that’s the only kind of love song I write.”

Another irresistibly soulful track, “You Know My Heart” closes out Death Wish Blues with a spellbinding duet illuminating the pure magic of their musical chemistry. “That’s the first song that Jesse and I finished together,” Fish points out. “He sent it to me to one morning and told me he’d woken up the night before with that melody in his head, and we started singing it together and fleshing out the verses. It turned into a song about being far from your loved one and maybe things aren’t going the way you want, but you know they’ll love you through your worst and see your better intentions through it all. I thought that was a really beautiful way to end the record.”  

Throughout Death Wish Blues, Fish and Dayton let their more lighthearted side shine on tracks like “Supadupabad,” a gloriously carefree piece of blues-funk complete with references to sipping Courvoisier from crystal cups. “That song was way out of my comfort zone, but it felt good to get sort of silly and just have fun with it,” says Fish. “It’s like a two-minute party, and I don’t think I could’ve ever come up with something like that on my own.” Thanks in part to Spencer’s direction, the recording sessions for Death Wish Blues also included such unexpected moments as building the off-kilter beat of “Dangerous People” by banging on beer cans gathered from the backyard. “What I loved about working with Jon is that we brought in a bunch of songs that we’d demoed on acoustic guitar, and he’d go in and find a way to add all these unique parts that I never would’ve envisioned,” says Fish. “Sometimes it was jarring at first, but everything ended up fitting so perfectly.” Looking back on the album-making process, Fish also notes that Spencer helped to uncover certain facets of her voice that she’d never explored before. “Jon records vocals with character; it’s about attitude rather than perfection,” she says. “I learned a lot about taking on the character of the song, and about singing with different inflections to really get the emotion across.”

For both Fish and Dayton, the making of Death Wish Blues helped fulfill their longtime mission of opening up the blues genre to entirely new audiences. “I’ve played all kinds of music in my life, punk and country and Americana and so much else, and for me this was another wonderful rabbit hole to fall down,” says Dayton. “I love that it’s coming at a moment when we’re starting to see the resurgence of rock guitar for the first time in a long time, and I think it’s going to turn a lot of people on to a kind of music they’ve never experienced before.” Fish adds: “The main reason why I make music has always been the connection it creates with others. It’s a way to communicate with the world around me, to tell stories that people can then take and apply to their own lives and maybe feel more understood. We had such a fun time making this album, and I hope that it leaves everyone with the same feeling of joy that we all felt in the studio.”

Eric Johanson

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“That was my mission on this album: To really set these songs up so that they have a life of their own,” says Samantha Fish about Kill or Be Kind, her sixth solo album and her debut on Rounder Records. “Strong messages from the heart – that’s what I really set out for.” Indeed, what comes across immediately on hearing the album is the extraordinary level of songcraft on its eleven tracks, the way these songs are so smartly put together to deliver a potent emotional impact.

Anyone who has ever heard Fish’s previous albums knows that she has earned a place in the top rank of contemporary blues guitarists and that her voice can wring the soul out of a ballad and belt out a rocker with roof-shaking force. And, rest reassured, those virtues are fully in evidence on Kill or Be Kind. But each of the songs on the album does far more than simply provide a setting for Fish’s pyrotechnics. They tell captivating stories, set up by verses that deftly set the scene, choruses that lift with real feeling, and hooks that later rise up in your thoughts, even when you’re not aware that you’re thinking of music at all. It’s the kind of songwriting that emerges when raw talent is leavened by experience and aspiration, and when a committed artist genuinely has something to say. Those qualities make Kill or Be Kind a genuine artistic breakthrough for Fish.

“I think I’ve grown as a performer and as a player,” she explains. “I’ve become more respectful of the melody. You can go up and down the fret board and up and down your vocal register, but that’s not going to be as powerful as conveying a simple melody that people can really connect to and sing themselves.” To help bring those elements to her music, Fish sought out high-quality songwriting collaborators – the likes of Jim McCormick (who has worked with Fish before and also written for Luke Bryan and Keith Urban); Kate Pearlman (who has worked with Kelly Clarkson); Patrick Sweeney; Parker Millsap; and Eric McFadden. The result is an album on which each song is distinct, but the complete work hangs together as a coherent, entirely satisfying statement. “When you get to this point in your life as an artist,” Fish says, “it’s good to work with others, because it makes you stretch. I think you hear a lot of that nuance on the record, songs that have a pop sensibility to them, hooks that really pull you in.”

You get a good sense of the range the album covers from the first two songs released. Fish propels “Watch It Die” with an insistent guitar riff, but near the song’s end two female background singers lend the song a haunting soulful feel. Meanwhile, “Love Letters” moves on an insinuating, stop-time riff in its verses until it bursts in passion on its chorus. Both songs use horn sections for finesse and texture. “Love Letters” also introduces one of the album’s central themes: the allure of losing yourself in love – and the dangers of it.  “Keep waking up in the bed I made,” Fish sings. “Forget the pain when you wanna play/I’m back to broken when you go away.”

“That’s just a love-sick song,” Fish says, laughing. “like I think I was when I wrote it.” The title track, a seductive ballad, offers a lover a stark choice: “Make up your mind/I can kill or be kind.” To explain that dichotomy, Fish says, “It’s funny how love can be so fickle, how quickly you go from object of affection to one of disdain. I’ve always found that dynamic interesting. That track is full of that duality,” she adds, laughing. “I also loved the Memphis sound of the horns on there. They sound modern, but it’s got this vintage feeling as well.” The songs “Dirty,” “Love Your Lies” and “Fair-Weather” explore similar themes – how deceit, self-deception and shifting expectations can alter the course of life and love. The affecting ballad “Dream Girl” stands the endearment of its title on its head and explores the dilemma of a love not coming to fruition. “I wish you’d take the rest of me,” Fish sings. “These tears, they kill your fantasy.” On “She Don’t Live Around Here Anymore,” a soul ballad once again bolstered by tasteful horn parts, the singer confronts the feeling of being used and finds empowerment in walking away.  

The album is framed by songs — “Bulletproof” and “You Got It Bad (Better Than You Ever Had).” “Bulletproof digs into the theme of vulnerability, about it being mistaken for weakness, and how we often times feel the need to wear a mask to survive in the world today, while “You Got It Bad (Better Than You Ever Had)” is about working towards your dreams and the knifes edge we often walk to reach our goals.

“Trying Not to Fall in Love With You” finds the singer not wanting to rush a relationship – and therefore undermine it. “I fall fast,” Fish admits, “I have to remember to take care and not scare the person away.”

To make Kill or Be Kind, Fish chose to work at the legendary Royal Studios in Memphis, with Scott Billington as producer. “I worked at Royal before, when I made my Wild Heart album,” she says. “The soul in the walls, the vibe – you can feel it in that place. I’m such a fan of Al Green, Ann Peebles and all the classic recordings that happened there. Memphis just kept calling to me. I’ve always felt so inspired there.” As for Billington, a three-time Grammy winner, Fish appreciated both his open-mindedness and his willingness to ease her out of her comfort zone. “Scott allowed me to see the building-out process of the album all the way through, from the top to the bottom,” she says. “Bringing in background singers and synthesizers, which I’d never done on an album before, that added an extra edge. Honestly, it was a challenge. It pushed me to think about the songs differently. That trust from my producer gave me the freedom to really take some risks.”

Having completed an album that she believes in so strongly – “This is me coming through, my personality,” she says – Fish is eager to bring it to the world. “I got the moon in the back of my mind, and I want to shoot for it!” she declares. “I want to reach over genre lines and get out to as many people as possible. This album is so broad – and it’s all me. So I’m just hoping it catches people and appeals to them.”

She concludes, “Overall my big goal, career-wise, is to contribute something different and new to music. I want to give something that stands apart and yet is timeless.” With Kill or Be Kind, Samantha Fish is well on her way along that path. – Anthony DeCurtis

Click here for our Covid Protocols

“That was my mission on this album: To really set these songs up so that they have a life of their own,” says Samantha Fish about Kill or Be Kind, her sixth solo album and her debut on Rounder Records. “Strong messages from the heart – that’s what I really set out for.” Indeed, what comes across immediately on hearing the album is the extraordinary level of songcraft on its eleven tracks, the way these songs are so smartly put together to deliver a potent emotional impact.

Anyone who has ever heard Fish’s previous albums knows that she has earned a place in the top rank of contemporary blues guitarists and that her voice can wring the soul out of a ballad and belt out a rocker with roof-shaking force. And, rest reassured, those virtues are fully in evidence on Kill or Be Kind. But each of the songs on the album does far more than simply provide a setting for Fish’s pyrotechnics. They tell captivating stories, set up by verses that deftly set the scene, choruses that lift with real feeling, and hooks that later rise up in your thoughts, even when you’re not aware that you’re thinking of music at all. It’s the kind of songwriting that emerges when raw talent is leavened by experience and aspiration, and when a committed artist genuinely has something to say. Those qualities make Kill or Be Kind a genuine artistic breakthrough for Fish.

“I think I’ve grown as a performer and as a player,” she explains. “I’ve become more respectful of the melody. You can go up and down the fret board and up and down your vocal register, but that’s not going to be as powerful as conveying a simple melody that people can really connect to and sing themselves.” To help bring those elements to her music, Fish sought out high-quality songwriting collaborators – the likes of Jim McCormick (who has worked with Fish before and also written for Luke Bryan and Keith Urban); Kate Pearlman (who has worked with Kelly Clarkson); Patrick Sweeney; Parker Millsap; and Eric McFadden. The result is an album on which each song is distinct, but the complete work hangs together as a coherent, entirely satisfying statement. “When you get to this point in your life as an artist,” Fish says, “it’s good to work with others, because it makes you stretch. I think you hear a lot of that nuance on the record, songs that have a pop sensibility to them, hooks that really pull you in.”

You get a good sense of the range the album covers from the first two songs released. Fish propels “Watch It Die” with an insistent guitar riff, but near the song’s end two female background singers lend the song a haunting soulful feel. Meanwhile, “Love Letters” moves on an insinuating, stop-time riff in its verses until it bursts in passion on its chorus. Both songs use horn sections for finesse and texture. “Love Letters” also introduces one of the album’s central themes: the allure of losing yourself in love – and the dangers of it.  “Keep waking up in the bed I made,” Fish sings. “Forget the pain when you wanna play/I’m back to broken when you go away.”

“That’s just a love-sick song,” Fish says, laughing. “like I think I was when I wrote it.” The title track, a seductive ballad, offers a lover a stark choice: “Make up your mind/I can kill or be kind.” To explain that dichotomy, Fish says, “It’s funny how love can be so fickle, how quickly you go from object of affection to one of disdain. I’ve always found that dynamic interesting. That track is full of that duality,” she adds, laughing. “I also loved the Memphis sound of the horns on there. They sound modern, but it’s got this vintage feeling as well.” The songs “Dirty,” “Love Your Lies” and “Fair-Weather” explore similar themes – how deceit, self-deception and shifting expectations can alter the course of life and love. The affecting ballad “Dream Girl” stands the endearment of its title on its head and explores the dilemma of a love not coming to fruition. “I wish you’d take the rest of me,” Fish sings. “These tears, they kill your fantasy.” On “She Don’t Live Around Here Anymore,” a soul ballad once again bolstered by tasteful horn parts, the singer confronts the feeling of being used and finds empowerment in walking away.  

The album is framed by songs — “Bulletproof” and “You Got It Bad (Better Than You Ever Had).” “Bulletproof digs into the theme of vulnerability, about it being mistaken for weakness, and how we often times feel the need to wear a mask to survive in the world today, while “You Got It Bad (Better Than You Ever Had)” is about working towards your dreams and the knifes edge we often walk to reach our goals.

“Trying Not to Fall in Love With You” finds the singer not wanting to rush a relationship – and therefore undermine it. “I fall fast,” Fish admits, “I have to remember to take care and not scare the person away.”

To make Kill or Be Kind, Fish chose to work at the legendary Royal Studios in Memphis, with Scott Billington as producer. “I worked at Royal before, when I made my Wild Heart album,” she says. “The soul in the walls, the vibe – you can feel it in that place. I’m such a fan of Al Green, Ann Peebles and all the classic recordings that happened there. Memphis just kept calling to me. I’ve always felt so inspired there.” As for Billington, a three-time Grammy winner, Fish appreciated both his open-mindedness and his willingness to ease her out of her comfort zone. “Scott allowed me to see the building-out process of the album all the way through, from the top to the bottom,” she says. “Bringing in background singers and synthesizers, which I’d never done on an album before, that added an extra edge. Honestly, it was a challenge. It pushed me to think about the songs differently. That trust from my producer gave me the freedom to really take some risks.”

Having completed an album that she believes in so strongly – “This is me coming through, my personality,” she says – Fish is eager to bring it to the world. “I got the moon in the back of my mind, and I want to shoot for it!” she declares. “I want to reach over genre lines and get out to as many people as possible. This album is so broad – and it’s all me. So I’m just hoping it catches people and appeals to them.”

She concludes, “Overall my big goal, career-wise, is to contribute something different and new to music. I want to give something that stands apart and yet is timeless.” With Kill or Be Kind, Samantha Fish is well on her way along that path. – Anthony DeCurtis

Click here for COVID-19 Safety Protocols

“That was my mission on this album: To really set these songs up so that they have a life of their own,” says Samantha Fish about Kill or Be Kind, her sixth solo album and her debut on Rounder Records. “Strong messages from the heart – that’s what I really set out for.” Indeed, what comes across immediately on hearing the album is the extraordinary level of songcraft on its eleven tracks, the way these songs are so smartly put together to deliver a potent emotional impact.

Anyone who has ever heard Fish’s previous albums knows that she has earned a place in the top rank of contemporary blues guitarists and that her voice can wring the soul out of a ballad and belt out a rocker with roof-shaking force. And, rest reassured, those virtues are fully in evidence on Kill or Be Kind. But each of the songs on the album does far more than simply provide a setting for Fish’s pyrotechnics. They tell captivating stories, set up by verses that deftly set the scene, choruses that lift with real feeling, and hooks that later rise up in your thoughts, even when you’re not aware that you’re thinking of music at all. It’s the kind of songwriting that emerges when raw talent is leavened by experience and aspiration, and when a committed artist genuinely has something to say. Those qualities make Kill or Be Kind a genuine artistic breakthrough for Fish.

“I think I’ve grown as a performer and as a player,” she explains. “I’ve become more respectful of the melody. You can go up and down the fret board and up and down your vocal register, but that’s not going to be as powerful as conveying a simple melody that people can really connect to and sing themselves.” To help bring those elements to her music, Fish sought out high-quality songwriting collaborators – the likes of Jim McCormick (who has worked with Fish before and also written for Luke Bryan and Keith Urban); Kate Pearlman (who has worked with Kelly Clarkson); Patrick Sweeney; Parker Millsap; and Eric McFadden. The result is an album on which each song is distinct, but the complete work hangs together as a coherent, entirely satisfying statement. “When you get to this point in your life as an artist,” Fish says, “it’s good to work with others, because it makes you stretch. I think you hear a lot of that nuance on the record, songs that have a pop sensibility to them, hooks that really pull you in.”

You get a good sense of the range the album covers from the first two songs released. Fish propels “Watch It Die” with an insistent guitar riff, but near the song’s end two female background singers lend the song a haunting soulful feel. Meanwhile, “Love Letters” moves on an insinuating, stop-time riff in its verses until it bursts in passion on its chorus. Both songs use horn sections for finesse and texture. “Love Letters” also introduces one of the album’s central themes: the allure of losing yourself in love – and the dangers of it.  “Keep waking up in the bed I made,” Fish sings. “Forget the pain when you wanna play/I’m back to broken when you go away.”

“That’s just a love-sick song,” Fish says, laughing. “like I think I was when I wrote it.” The title track, a seductive ballad, offers a lover a stark choice: “Make up your mind/I can kill or be kind.” To explain that dichotomy, Fish says, “It’s funny how love can be so fickle, how quickly you go from object of affection to one of disdain. I’ve always found that dynamic interesting. That track is full of that duality,” she adds, laughing. “I also loved the Memphis sound of the horns on there. They sound modern, but it’s got this vintage feeling as well.” The songs “Dirty,” “Love Your Lies” and “Fair-Weather” explore similar themes – how deceit, self-deception and shifting expectations can alter the course of life and love. The affecting ballad “Dream Girl” stands the endearment of its title on its head and explores the dilemma of a love not coming to fruition. “I wish you’d take the rest of me,” Fish sings. “These tears, they kill your fantasy.” On “She Don’t Live Around Here Anymore,” a soul ballad once again bolstered by tasteful horn parts, the singer confronts the feeling of being used and finds empowerment in walking away.

The album is framed by songs — “Bulletproof” and “You Got It Bad (Better Than You Ever Had).” “Bulletproof digs into the theme of vulnerability, about it being mistaken for weakness, and how we often times feel the need to wear a mask to survive in the world today, while “You Got It Bad (Better Than You Ever Had)” is about working towards your dreams and the knifes edge we often walk to reach our goals.

“Trying Not to Fall in Love With You” finds the singer not wanting to rush a relationship – and therefore undermine it. “I fall fast,” Fish admits, “I have to remember to take care and not scare the person away.”

To make Kill or Be Kind, Fish chose to work at the legendary Royal Studios in Memphis, with Scott Billington as producer. “I worked at Royal before, when I made my Wild Heart album,” she says. “The soul in the walls, the vibe – you can feel it in that place. I’m such a fan of Al Green, Ann Peebles and all the classic recordings that happened there. Memphis just kept calling to me. I’ve always felt so inspired there.” As for Billington, a three-time Grammy winner, Fish appreciated both his open-mindedness and his willingness to ease her out of her comfort zone. “Scott allowed me to see the building-out process of the album all the way through, from the top to the bottom,” she says. “Bringing in background singers and synthesizers, which I’d never done on an album before, that added an extra edge. Honestly, it was a challenge. It pushed me to think about the songs differently. That trust from my producer gave me the freedom to really take some risks.”

Having completed an album that she believes in so strongly – “This is me coming through, my personality,” she says – Fish is eager to bring it to the world. “I got the moon in the back of my mind, and I want to shoot for it!” she declares. “I want to reach over genre lines and get out to as many people as possible. This album is so broad – and it’s all me. So I’m just hoping it catches people and appeals to them.”

She concludes, “Overall my big goal, career-wise, is to contribute something different and new to music. I want to give something that stands apart and yet is timeless.” With Kill or Be Kind, Samantha Fish is well on her way along that path. – Anthony DeCurtis

“You should always get outside of the box,” Samantha Fish says while discussing her boundary-breaking new album Belle of the West. “Challenging yourself is how you grow.”

After launching her recording career in 2009, Samantha Fish quickly established herself as a rising star in the contemporary blues world.  Since then, the charismatic young singer-guitarist-songwriter has earned a reputation as a rising guitar hero and powerful live performer, while releasing a series of acclaimed albums that have shown her restless creative spirit consistently taking her in new and exciting musical directions.

The New York Times called Fish “an impressive blues guitarist who sings with sweet power” and “one of the genre’s most promising young talents.”  Her hometown paper The Kansas City Star noted, “Samantha Fish has kicked down the door of the patriarchal blues club” and observed that the young artist “displays more imagination and creativity than some blues veterans exhibit over the course of their careers.”

Having already made it clear that she’s more interested in following her heart than she is in repeating past triumphs, Samantha Fish delivers some of her most compelling music to date with Belle of the West, her fifth studio album.  The deeply soulful, personally charged 11-song set showcases Fish’s sublime acoustic guitar skills as well as her rootsy, emotionally resonant songwriting.

Such memorable new originals as “American Dream,” “Blood in the Water,” “Need You More” and “Don’t Say You Love Me” demonstrate the artist’s knack for organic Americana songcraft, while a trio of cover tunes—R.L. Burnside’s “Poor Black Mattie,” Lillie Mae’s “Nearing Home” and the Jimbo Mathus-penned title track—attest to her substantial interpretive skills as well as her varied musical interests.

“To me, this is a natural progression,” Fish notes. “It’s a storytelling record by a girl who grew up in the Midwest.  It’s very personal.  I really focused on the songwriting and vocals, the melodies and emotion, and on bringing another dimension to what I do.  I wasn’t interested in shredding on guitar, although we ended up with a few heavier tracks.  I love Mississippi blues; there’s something very soulful and very real about that style of music, so this was a chance to immerse myself in that.”

Fish recorded Belle of the West in the relaxed, rural creative atmosphere of the legendary Zebra Ranch Studios in the North Hills of Mississippi with producer Luther Dickinson (of North Mississippi Allstars fame), with whom she worked previously on her 2015 album Wild Heart.  The studio team included some of the region’s most iconoclastic musicians, including Dickinson, solo artist and Jack White associate Lillie Mae (whose distinctive vocals are featured on “Nearing Home”), much-traveled juke- joint blues artist Lightnin’ Malcolm (whose featured on “Poor Black Mattie”), Squirrel Nut Zippers founder Jimbo Mathus, upright bassist and beloved solo artist Amy LaVere, Tikyra Jackson, Trina Raimey and Shardé Thomas, granddaughter of the legendary Southern bluesman Otha Turner.

“I wanted to do this acoustic-electric record, and tap into the style and swagger of Mississippi,” Fish states, adding, “Any time you dive into another place, another vibe and a new group of people, you’re challenging yourself to grow musically.  I felt very at home a Zebra Ranch, and I’ve known Luther and Malcolm for years, so it was a very comfortable situation.  When you’re making a record like this, it has to feel natural if you want people to respond to it.

Belle of the West follows on the heels of Fish’s March 2017 release Chills & Fever, which achieved top 10 status in the Billboard Blues charts. Here she expanded her stylistic arsenal to take on a set of lesser-known vintage R&B gems, with help from members of garage-soul stalwarts the Detroit Cobras. “Having these two very different records come out back to back this year has been really liberating,” says Samantha.

The creative drive that fuels Belle of the West and Chills & Fever has been a crucial element of Samantha Fish’s approach from the beginning.  Growing up in a musical family in Kansas City, Missouri, she became obsessed with music early life, taking up drums before switching to guitar at the age of 15. By the time she was 20, she had formed her own trio and self-released her first album.  She soon caught the ear of the renowned blues label Ruf Records, which in 2011 released Girls with Guitars, which teamed her with fellow axewomen Cassie Taylor and Dani Wilde.  The same year saw Ruf release Fish’s solo studio debut Runaway.  The album was named Best Artist Debut at the 2012 Blues Music Awards in Memphis.

Black Wind Howlin’ (2013) and Wild Heart (2015) followed, winning considerable critical acclaim and further establishing Fish as a prominent presence in the blues community.  Wild Heart reached the top slot on Billboard’s blues chart.  She also collaborated with blues-rock veterans Jimmy Hall and Reese Wynans on the 2013 project The Healers.  The same year, she jammed onstage with blues icon Buddy Guy, and guested on Devon Allman’s album Turquoise.

Fish continues to maintain the same hardworking, prolific approach that’s carried her this far.  “I think I’ve always had that,” she says.  “Music is my life, so what other choice do I have but to go out and make music?  We do tour quite a bit, and maybe it’s kind of crazy to put out two dramatically different albums in one year.  But I like to work hard.  This is who I am and this is what I do, and when I’m writing and recording and touring is when I feel the most like myself.  And now we have a moment where people are paying attention, so I have to make the most of it.  I feel like I have a lot to say right now, so why not say it?”

As far as Samantha Fish is concerned, her musical future is an open road.  “I’m never gonna be a traditional blues artist, because that’s not who I am,” she asserts.  “But it’s all the blues for me.  When Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf came out, what they were doing didn’t sound like anything that had been done in blues before.  You’ve gotta keep that kind of fire and spirit.  I’m never gonna do Muddy Waters better than Muddy Waters, so I have to be who I am and find my best voice.