Samantha Fish

Connsidered as a pioneer of the modern blues, Samantha Fish was born on October 30, 1989, in Kansas City (Missouri). Growing up in a musical family listening to classic rock, she initially took up drums but switched to guitar in her mid-teens and was captivated by the blues artists she would see at her local club Knuckleheads; by the age of 18 she was up on stage performing with them. This resulted in her debut album Live Bait in 2009, which led to her being signed by Ruf Records and put her together with two other fine guitarists Cassie Taylor and Dani Wilde on the album Girls with Guitars and she subsequently joined a Ruf Records tour across America and Europe. She then continued to tour with her own Samantha Fish Band and, mentored by Mike Zito, she made another significant leap with the 2011 album Runaway which won her the Best New Artist prize at the 2012 Blues Artist Awards. Her second major album Black Wind Howlin' appeared in 2013 with Mike Zito and members of the group Royal Southern Brotherhood, breaking into the Billboard Blues Chart, followed by Wild Heart in 2015 which moved her away from straight blues towards roots rock. Recorded with the Detroit Cobras Chills & Fever (2017) won her lots of acclaim, with covers of songs by the likes of Allen Toussaint and Jackie de Shannon. She switched styles again on the follow-up Belle of the West, topping the Billboard Blues Album chart with a softer approach that found her developing her songwriting as she drew on country and Americana. Signed by the Rounder label, Fish recorded Kill or Be Kind (2019) in Memphis with Scott Billington, while Faster was co-written and produced by Martin Kierszenbaum in 2021 at The Village in Los Angeles. The release of the short documentary Love Letters: Samantha Fish Live from New Orleans was followed by the Grammy-nominated Death Wish Blues with Jesse Dayton in 2023, followed by a joint tour through US, UK and Europe, and a nomination for Best Contemporary Blues Album at the 2024 Grammy Awards. In 2025, Samantha Fish released her eighth solo album Paper Doll, featuring singles "Sweet Southern Sounds", "I'm Done Runnin'", and "Can Ya Handle the Heat?." It was followed by Paper Doll Live, recorded at the Bijou Theatre, Knoxville, Tennessee.