Fish Blues

A blues musician from Kansas City, Missouri, Samantha Fish impressed industry professionals as a teenager before scoring her first Billboard blues number one in her mid-twenties. Fish grew up in a musical family with a variety of genres, including a steady diet of classic rock radio. Her father played guitar and would sometimes jam with friends at the family house. Young Samantha started out as a drummer but switched to guitar at the age of 15. As a teen, she would sneak into local blues landmark the Knuckleheads Saloon to hear touring musicians, and began sitting in with them from time to time after she became legal at 18.

Samantha Fish’s prodigious gifts as a genre-bending singer, songwriter, and electrifying guitarist have inspired tremendous acclaim from critics and her peers and have earned an abundance of awards for the young artist. Now, with Kill or Be Kind, Fish is poised for a major breakthrough. The edgy roots music album was recorded at Royal Studios in Memphis and produced by three-time Grammy winner Scott Billington and mixed by two-time Grammy winner Steve Reynolds. Boasting 11 original songs ranging from the Mississippi technostomp of “Bulletproof” (played on cigar box guitar) to the sweet Memphis R&B of “Trying Not To Fall in Love With You,” the album features co-writes with Jim McCormack, Eric McFadden, Parker Millsap, Katie Pearlman, and Patrick Sweany and is sure to establish Fish as a potent force in roots music.

Samantha Fish has received practically every accolade a contemporary blues singer/songwriter/guitarist could hope for. She's a festival headliner with multiple Blues Music Awards, who has graced the cover of guitar magazines and toured internationally to packed houses. Fish commands her cathartic shows with her edgy vocal delivery and in-your-face slide guitar. Jesse Dayton is an American musician, actor and record producer best known for his guitar contributions to albums by country musicians including Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson. He is also notable for his collaborations with horror film director Rob Zombie, who has commissioned Dayton on multiple occasions to record music to accompany his films. In recent years Dayton has released several critically acclaimed solo albums.

My Kind of Blues was originally released in late 1960 on the budget label Crown. On this session, B.B. King dropped the smooth big band sound of his previous release, B.B. King Wails, to an instrumentally stripped-down unit of bass, drums, piano, and, of course, his beloved guitar Lucille. This date took one day to record and is said to be one of King's personal favorites. Any of B.B. King's early Crown releases are essential, and considering that the 2003 Ace reissues feature previously unissued bonus tracks and midline pricing, these are the ones to grab. According to the liner notes, these bonus tracks are included for being "small combo tracks that continue the traditional blues theme, and allow plenty of space for B.B.'s guitar." Unfortunately, recording dates for these aren't given, but they do include five previously unissued tracks from his Modern sessions, as well as an undubbed version of "Looking the World Over"; an overdubbed version of "Walking Dr. Bill"; and a previously unissued take of "Hold That Train..

24bit digitally remastered Japanese limited edition issue of the album classic in a deluxe, miniaturized LP sleeve replica of the original vinyl album artwork. According to his biographer, Charles Sawyer, this is King's personal favorite among his recordings. Unlike most of his albums from this period (which are mostly collections of singles), this was recorded in one session and takes him out of his usual big-band setting, using only bass, drums, and piano for accompaniment. The result is a masterpiece: a sparse, uncluttered sound with nothing to mask King's beautiful guitar and voice. "You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now" (its unaccompanied guitar intro is a pure distillation of his style), "Mr. Pawn Broker," "Someday Baby" (R&B Top Ten, 1961), "Walkin' Dr. Bill," and a great version of "Drivin' Wheel" are highlights.

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. Produced by the legendary Jon Spencer of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Death Wish Blues melds their eclectic sensibilities into a batch of songs both emotionally potent and wildly combustible and helps fulfill their shared longtime mission of opening the blues genre to entirely new audiences.

BMA Winner for Best New Blues Artist 2012, Samantha Fish makes much of her growing maturity on her second solo album ‘Black Wind Howlin’. Given the wide variety of relationship songs and a mix of reflective and self confident narratives, it appears she’s taken stock and come out the other side with a clearer sense of who she is.

On this trio album, Samantha Fish, Cassie Taylor, and Dani Wilde begin with the Rolling Stones' "Bitch" and end with the Steve Miller Band's "Jet Airliner," each taking a verse. The rest of the album is devoted to original compositions written by one or the other of the performers in a variety of blues styles, and the instrumentation also varies, though Taylor (daughter of Otis Taylor, with whom she played extensively), as the bassist, appears on almost every track. The exception is also the only solo track, Wilde's folk-blues number "Reason to Stay," on which she plays Dobro. Wilde also takes much of the lead guitar work, with Fish getting lead work on her own "Come on Home" and "Wait a Minute," as well as Taylor's "Move On." The switch-offs make for a good balance, and it's not surprising that this triumvirate has toured together in Europe. The album should help make their names better known, but that also might reduce their impetus to stay together.