Samantha Fish

Samantha Fish at The Westcott Theater in Syracuse, NY on May 28th!

One of the most formidable guitarists of her generation, Samantha Fish brings both mind-blowing power and extraordinary emotionality to everything she creates. Since first introducing the world to her larger-than-life talent, the multi-award-winning festival headliner has built a triumphant career that includes a Grammy nomination for Death Wish Blues (her 2023 collaboration with rocker Jesse Dayton) and opening for The Rolling Stones on their final 2024 U.S. tour date.

On her new album Paper Doll, Fish offers up nine powerhouse songs delivered with illuminating insight, soul-soothing empathy, and newly heightened clarity of vision. “It’s taken me years to finally find my voice in a studio setting,” Fish admits. “But with this record I took everything I had, and slammed it right on the table.”

Paper Doll is Fish’s first album recorded with her touring band. The title comes from the first song she wrote for the LP: a raw yet reflective battle cry that encapsulates the album’s spirit of unapologetic defiance. “That song’s a feminist anthem in a way—but then again, every song’s a feminist anthem when you’re a woman writing from your own experience,” Fish says.

Recorded at The Orb in Austin and Savannah Studios in L.A., Paper Doll continues a catalog that’s seen Fish working with the likes of Jon Spencer and Luther Dickinson. This time she reunited with Detroit garage-rock icon Bobby Harlow, who also produced her 2017 LP Chills & Fever. “When I look back on Chills & Fever I realize that Bobby was pushing me into some cool and dangerous places, but at that phase in my life I was holding back a bit,” she says. “Now I’m at a point where I’m ready to give people something totally unexpected, something that breaks the pop formula and really takes its time to tell a story with the guitar playing.”

Fish made Paper Doll with bandmates Ron Johnson (bass), Jamie Douglass (drums), and Mickey Finn (keys), cutting most of the album in the midst of a grueling touring schedule that included dates with Slash on the S. E. R. P. E. N. T. festival in summer 2024. “I’d never made a record on the road like that,” Fish reveals. “Even though it was so intense, it felt good to keep up the momentum from the live show. It helped us make an album that’s got a real living, breathing pulse to it.”

Tracks and highlights from Paper Doll:

• “I’m Done Runnin’”: Opens on moody riffs as an exhilarating statement of self-reliance. (From the bridge: “When I look in the mirror, staring at the unknown/The world’s not getting clearer, but I like where I’m goin’”). Co-written in part with longtime co-writer Jim McCormick.

• “Lose You”: A fast-paced takedown of a noncommittal paramour, featuring a blazing guitar solo and harmonies from backup singers D. Scaife, Keo, and Gabbi Beauvais. “It’s my way of saying, ‘I’m on fire and you’re not, so what are you gonna do about it?’”

• “Rusty Razor”: A brutally catchy, punk-tinged tirade with guest vocalist Mick Collins.

• “Fortune Teller”: A psych-blues slow-burner driven by a spellbinding vocal turn.

• “Sweet Southern Sounds”: Smoldering riffs and lush organ melodies co-written with Anders Osborne, a meditation on the tension between life on the road and relationships. “It’s hard to find that balance between taking care of your relationships and dedicating yourself to your music, and there’s definitely a tinge of heartache to that song.”

Fish cites influences from Prince and Leonard Cohen to Black Sabbath, and she drew particular inspiration from Delta blues figures like Junior Kimbrough and R. L. Burnside when writing Paper Doll. “I love how in a lot of Mississippi Hill Country blues there’s a drone that happens on the low notes and keeps you hypnotized throughout the song,” she says. A lot of the guitar work on this record is inspired by that style and then explodes in directions from rock & roll to soul to pop.

Bobby Harlow also co-wrote several songs on Paper Doll. “I can be a perfectionist when it comes to recording, and it was cool to have Bobby around to stop from me trying to robotically hit the exact note over and over,” Fish says. As a born performer who started by cold-calling local bars in her mid-teens, Fish crafted every song with an ear toward how it will land live: “The main goal is to make great songs that tap into whatever I’m feeling at the moment, but at the same time I’m asking, ‘How is this going to feel live?’”

Arguably her most accomplished work to date, Paper Doll emerged from Fish leaning into the musical gifts she’s cultivated most of her life. “When we started working on this record I asked myself, ‘What are my superpowers?’ I wanted to lean into my strengths in a way I never completely had before, to make a big guitar album with some epic performances and really sing my ass off,” she says. “I ended up pouring so much emotion into all the songs, and I hope they help people feel fired up and ready to take on anything that comes their way. I’d love for this record to be somebody’s jet fuel.”