Interview: Samantha Fish

When Samantha Fish was a music-crazy tween, experiencing music was best done in the confines of her bedroom. So, when her father took her to see Sheryl Crow, she went kicking and screaming 

(“I was a little s*** about the whole thing,” Fish recalled in a mid-August interview. “I was like, ‘I don’t want to see someone play music live. I can just listen to it at home.’” 

What she instead witnessed was an experience that not only blew her away, but sucked her in because Crow “…completely owned the crowd with her stage presence.” That memory not only stuck with Fish, but it’s a feeling she captured on “Paper Doll Live,” the Missouri native’s new live album. Recorded at the historic Bijou Theatre in Knoxville, TN, this collection of songs was long overdue for the blues guitar fireball.

“To be honest, I’ve always wanted to do a live record,” Fish said. “It’s always been a timing issue for me and I would have put one out a long time ago. I try to listen to the requests of our fan base and I feel like that’s been the primary request over the years. They want to take a piece of the show home with them. They want the experience that they just had on record.

“I think also my most recent studio album, ‘Paper Doll,’ has some kind of organic nature to those songs that lent themselves to a live performance record,” she added.

If there’s any doubt about the fiery nature concert-goers experience at a Samantha Fish gig, she opens “Paper Doll Live” with a face-melting cover of the MC5 napalm classic “Kick Out the Jams.” The decision to perform the song was a long time coming for Fish, who not only had the band’s late activist manager John Sinclair pen the liner notes for her 2023 collaborative album with Jesse Dayton, “Death Wish Blues,” but whose love affair with the Motor City dates back roughly a decade when she was hanging around Detroit working on her 2017 album “Chills & Fever.” 

“I’ve always had an affinity for Detroit garage rock and soul music and how those two affected each other,” she explained. “The MC5 is such a classic band. We started performing it during the ‘Death Wish [Blues]’ tour because for a couple of years before that, it was our walk-on music. You know, when the band’s coming on the stage, you have a song playing. I got used to hearing it as the first song before we played our first song and I was wondering why we weren’t playing this song ourselves. It kicks ass.”

That love of American roots music that has inspired her to plum the influence of Mississippi Blues Country blues also found Fish tapping into her love of Black music on “Paper Doll Live” via her inviting gospel legends the McCray Sisters to add vocals throughout the set. Most notable is the slide-guitar-soaked one-two punch of “I’m Done Runnin’” and “Lose You.” 

“Their voices lifted every song,” Fish said. “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.”

For Fish’s current tour, concertgoers can expect plenty more of that kind of musical moxie.

“I look at what we’re doing as a snapshot of where the band is currently at,” Fish said. “I generally try to feature the newest record and fill it up with fan favorites around it, so the set list will be pretty ‘Paper Doll’ heavy. I don’t have the luxury and burden of a hit song. I have songs people like that I try to do. I feel like the show is open to change, which is great.”

Fish’s own musical journey started out with her fan-girling over The Spice Girls (“…great singers, catchy songs and different personalities everyone could relate to. I think for a while I was into Scary Spice”) and The Rolling Stones (“I remember getting ‘40 Licks’ at one point and loving it. I quickly found they were never afraid to push themselves into some other territory and yet, still sound completely true to themselves.”). And when she was 13, Fish’s first instrument was actually a drum kit. It would be another two years before she would trade in her drumsticks for a guitar.

“I think I always secretly wanted to be a frontperson, but I was very introverted and shy as a kid,” Fish shared. “I thought maybe being in the back of the band would be more comfortable for me. But I think that secret little entertainer I stuffed away and wasn’t really sure I should nurture just kept poking out. We had guitars laying around the house. I don’t remember the first time I picked one up. I think it was a gradual thing. I feel like the drums helped me jump ahead through that awkward phase of not being able to play in time. I already had this internal metronome in a way that helped me. I love the drums. I wasn’t very good at it, but at least I learned how to count to four and it somehow stuck with me.”

For now, Fish’s current itinerary includes plenty of touring. As for new material, the 37-year-old fret master admits she’s in nebulous territory.

“I’m in that ambiguous place right now where I’m creating, writing and just trying to see what songs come forward,” she said. “Then we can decide about recording, and once that happens, we can decide on a time frame. I can’t say until it’s done.”