Samantha Fish is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist from Kansas City, Missouri. She started out playing the drums, but when she was 15, she switched to guitar. Fish’s mother was the instructor in a local church choir and her father played guitar with friends. Initially hearing recordings of Bonnie Raitt and Stevie Ray Vaughan, she later heard music from Tom Petty and The Rolling Stones and cites the Stones’ album Sticky Fingers as an influential moment. Samantha and her sister were both drawn towards blues music in their teenage years. Fish regularly went to the Knuckleheads Saloon to hear touring blues artists. After turning 18, she often joined in with the singers and bands who were performing there.
In 2009, Fish recorded and produced Live Bait. The live album attracted the attention of a talent company, who recommended her to Ruf Records. Ruf Records put together a record with Fish and two other female blues artists, Cassie Taylor and Dani Wilde, titled Girls with Guitars. The three guitarists then toured on the Ruf Records 2011 Blues Caravan in the U.S. and Europe. Fish continued touring with the Samantha Fish Band, featuring “Go-Go Ray” Pollard on drums and Chris Alexander on bass, playing in Europe and the United States. In 2011, Fish recorded Runaway with the help of her mentor Mike Zito. The album won the 2012 Blues Music Award for Best New Artist.
Fish appeared on Devon Allman’s 2013 album Turquoise in a duet covering the song “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around”. During the summer of 2013, Fish was called up on stage to play with a skeptical Buddy Guy who was so impressed with her playing on the guitar, he declared with a beaming smile to his audience, “When this kind of shit happens, I’ll play all night!” In 2013, Fish released her second major studio album, Black Wind Howlin’, featuring Mike Zito on guitar, Yonrico Scott on drums, Johnny Sansone on harmonica, and Paul Thorn, vocal duet on one track. The album was recorded in Dockside Studios, in Maurice, Louisiana. Mike Zito’s bandmates from his group Royal Southern Brotherhood, Yonrico Scott and Charlie Wooton, were brought in to assist in the session recordings.
Also in 2013, Fish appeared on The Healers Live at Knuckleheads Saloon, producing a CD/DVD collaboration with Jimmy Hall, Reese Wynans, Kate Moss, and Danielle and Kris Schnebelen. Proceeds benefit the Blue Star Connection. The Healers occasionally perform together as their schedule permits. Fish’s third studio album, Wild Heart was released in July 2015. The new album was more roots rock than her earlier blues rock. Fish wrote five songs on the record. She co-wrote five other songs with Jim McCormick in Nashville. Luther Dickinson produced the album, as well as played various stringed instruments (guitar, bass, mandolin, lap steel) to flesh out the sound. Other musicians on the record are Brady Blade (drums), Lightnin’ Malcolm (guitar), Sharde Thomas (drums), Dominic Davis (bass), Shontelle Norman-Beatty (background vocals), and Risse Norman (background vocals).
Fish released her fourth solo album, Chills & Fever in March 2017. The album was recorded in Detroit and was recorded with members of the band The Detroit Cobras. Bobby Harlow produced the album. Belle of the West followed in December 2017. Fish released her sixth solo album, Kill or Be Kind, in September 2019. It was chosen as a ‘Favourite Blues Album’ by Allmusic. Fish released her seventh solo album, Faster, in September 2021, on Rounder Records.
