Over the past ten or so years, Samantha Fish has emerged as a more unique and difficult-to-categorize talent. She first gained widespread recognition as one of three performers on the 2011 Girls with Guitars album.
Fish has developed a style that combines high-octane blues with wild rock ‘n’ roll, pop, country, punk, hip-hop, and other sounds over the course of seven studio albums, initially for the German indie label Ruf and more recently for the blues and roots powerhouse Rounder.
Her strong voice and delicious, melodic guitar playing, which have over the years attracted a substantial following that includes Slash, are what bind it all together.
Slash remarks of his S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival companion, Samantha, She reminds me a little bit of Bonnie Raitt in some ways. She has an amazing blues tone and technique, along with a cool attitude. I was rather taken aback when I first heard her play, but she’s a true natural. I thought, Wow, this is fantastic.
Fish considers her preference for fusing the blues with other genres to be a part of a long-standing tradition. She claims that many of her heroes are rock ‘n’ roll artists who took inspiration from the blues and reimagined it.
And that, in my opinion, is the difficulty: What can I say with the blues?” Being able to experiment and mix all these various things that inspire you without being overly constrained is another enjoyable aspect of being an artist. Every record has its own structure, style, concept, and feel, but I always want to make sure I stay loyal to who I am.
She declares, I will never sound better than Muddy Waters did when he did his style. Because the way he accomplished it is flawless.
Finding and honing my own sound is therefore the only thing I can truly accomplish as an artist. That, in my opinion, is what artists do. Additionally, there is a lot of saturation and blending of various styles, which I think is fantastic, because the world has opened up so much in terms of genre these days.
She chuckles. “You know, they’re having a terrible time trying to figure out where things go down at the record store.
I believe my management was the first to inform me about the tour after I had been hearing rumors that Slash would be recording a blues-focused album. And I thought, Yeah, sure, I’ll get to go do stuff with Slash.
Very skeptical, you know. [Giggles] However, when it finally materialized, I thought, What a great idea, and what a great lineup. It’s an amazing experience to be a part of, and all the acts are very amazing performers. I was thrilled.
I’ve always been the type of person who enjoys ‘finding out,’ don’t you? I enjoy observing individuals and learning about their interests. In other words, I was into Keith Richards.
So what was it Keith Richards was listening to? Going backwards and discovering that the blues is actually the universal theme for everyone and everything is how I kind of found blues music for myself.
It is the foundation of all contemporary music. Additionally, because Kansas City has such a rich jazz and blues heritage, growing up there truly helped define and mold me. I simply kept getting drawn in that direction because of it.