Samantha Fish Back on the Road and Coming to Shank Hall

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Samantha Fish readily admits she was caught off guard when the pandemic hit in March 2020 and she had to cut short a European tour and return to her home in New Orleans. Fish never imagined the COVID crisis would be more than a minor speed bump interrupting her busy 2020 touring schedule.

“I never thought this thing would last more than two weeks,” Fish said in a recent phone interview. “I didn’t really get comfortable with the idea that I was going to have time off until somewhere in the summertime when it was like ‘OK, wake up, wake up! This is real.’ I just didn’t really know. The TV was yelling at me every morning telling me something kind of different. I just wasn’t sure. And we kept booking shows, but they’re pushing them back. I think seeing those dates on my calendar was like a little bit of a mind trick because I’d be like ‘Oh, July, we can make something work in July.’ Then July went away.”  

Eventually, Fish figured out a way to get back to playing live. She trimmed her band down from its previous six-person lineup to a trio of bass, drums and Fish on her customary guitar and vocals and began playing drive-in and socially distanced shows at venues that could make reduced attendance work financially. 

Fish continued to play these sort of shows well into spring of 2021 before heading into more traditional venues as touring opened up last year.

Getting back on the road—even for shows with limited attendance – made good sense for Fish, who didn’t just sit idle during 2020 waiting for touring to resume. She used the time to make her latest album, Faster.

“I spent pretty much the whole year (2020) writing songs,” Fish said. “I did a bunch of virtual collaboration sessions over Zoom, like writing sessions. I just made the most of it.”

Faster was released in September 2021 and it marks the next chapter in what has been an impressive run of albums for Fish. After establishing herself as a blues artist to watch with her 2013 debut Black Wind Howlin’ and her 2015 follow-up, Wildheart (which had some roots rock added to the mix). Fish really began to stretch out stylistically.

For Chills & Fever, released in March 2017, Fish went to Detroit to record with the members of the Detroit Cobras and came out with a stellar album that still had a blues element, but also included rocking vintage R&B, uptempo rock classic soul and sultry balladry. In December of that year, her music took another turn on Belle of the West, as Fish successfully delved into rootsy Americana, with more of an acoustic, but still spunky fiddle-laced sound.  

Kill or Be Kind

For 2019’s Kill or Be Kind, Fish went to Memphis to record, plugged back in and delivered an album with a similar stylistic range to “Chills & Fever,” only with a more modern feel that contrasted with the vintage vibe of “Chills & Fever.”

Faster covers its share of stylistic ground and introduces a few more new wrinkles to Fish’s sound. In particular, Fish said she was able to bring a pop dimension to the album by co-writing and working with producer Martin Kierszenbaum.

“Martin’s a pretty incredible producer. He’s worked with some major pop acts in the kind of mainstream field,” Fish said, noting a resume that includes Sting, Lady Gaga and Madonna. “I think my goal with this record was I wanted to make songs that could cross over into a realm that I hadn’t crossed into yet, but also maintain the authenticity of who I am as an artist and a guitar player. That, of course, is always the challenge when you’re trying something new, maintaining who you are, but also committing, committing to the process. I see these songs, it’s a very diverse record. They all feel very different from one another. I think they’re empowering. They’re fun. There are some that are more skewed rock and roll. There’s some pop influence. I feel like there’s bluesy guitar all over it. My voice just tends to skew bluesy anyway. So it’s kind of got this soulful quality to it.”

Fish’s next batch of music figures to once again show her tendency for creative adventure, as she’s teamed up with Americana/country artist Jesse Dayton for a collaborative album that is planned for release next May. Dayton is opening for Fish on a run of shows to end the year. And once Faster was released, she began to liberally feature those new songs in her sets, along with a few songs from “Kill or Be Kind,” while touching back on earlier material.

“We’re doing throwback stuff. We’re doing stuff from the ‘Wildheart’ record,” Fish said. “That’s cool for the old-school fans because they’ve been hollering out those requests for the last couple of years, and I’ve been, not ignoring them, I just forgot the songs. It’s nice to get to play those again.”

Samantha Fish performs at Shank Hall 8 p.m., Dec. 17. The show is sold out.