SAMANTHA FISH – LIVE AT THE FTC WAREHOUSE

2021-11-14

SAMANTHA FISH – LIVE AT THE FTC WAREHOUSE

Samantha Fish is a blueswoman who is after my heart — her music both searing and swampy, whether she’s breaking out a delay-pedal-infused riff on her arctic white Gibson SG, or belting out a chorus with a voice that’s clear, strong, and thick with emotion.

When I started listening to Fish a few months ago, it was like stumbling upon a new erogenous zone — I did not know blues could sound and feel like that!

Samantha Fish is as breathtaking as a vintage Gil Elvgren pinup, with an axe-wielding prowess that rivals Derek Trucks or Bonnie Raitt. Yet her music is also refreshingly modern, rooted in Delta Mississippi blues — a staple of her Kansas City hometown — but unafraid to embrace contemporary Americana, country, R&B, and jazz styles through a revolving set of guitars, tuning styles, and soundscapes. Her flair for breaking boundaries of genre is perhaps most evident on her latest album, Faster, which incorporates elements of electronic pop and hip-hop.

Needless to say, I had high expectations as I headed to her show on Wednesday night at The Warehouse at FTC, a 640-person-capacity music club in downtown Fairfield, Conn., about 5 miles from my home. And good golly, she didn’t disappoint!

After a charming opening set from St. Louis folk quartet River Kittens, Samantha Fish and her three-piece band hit the stage in front of a packed, nearly sold-out house, with the song “Loud,” one of the centerpiece tracks from Faster. Armed with her Gibson SG, wearing tight, shiny black pants and high-heeled boots, Samantha brought a dominating presence to the stage, slaying songs like “All Ice No Whiskey,” with its buzzy, singalong chorus, and the sizzling “Twisted Ambition,” with its seductive guitar riffs and confident lyrics.

I was shocked that I was the only person in my near vicinity singing along to “Twisted Ambition” while others around me just bopped their heads in hypnotized silence. In a way, that’s a good thing, suggesting that many concert-goers bought tickets because they were fascinated by a woman who can hang with the Buddy Guy types in the Chicago-to-New Orleans blues circuit. But it’s also a bit baffling, because it suggests that the Fairfield crowd doesn’t sing along to Fish’s songs while they’re driving.

So I’m going to post the link to “Twisted Ambition” on Spotify here (download it and you’ll thank me later, I promise!).

About 15 or 20 minutes into the set, Samantha switched guitars — and would ultimately switch several times between her baby blue Fender Vintura, red Gibson Firebird, brown Delaney 512, Taylor acoustic, and ukulele-size cigar box guitar — to play a few legacy tunes, emphasizing tracks from her 2019 album, Kill or Be Kind including “Love Letters,” the soulful, kittenish “Kill or Be Kind,” and the grittier “Watch it Die.” These, interwoven with Faster favorites like “Better Be Lonely” and a cover of Barbara Lewis’ “Hello Stranger,” balanced the set between saturated, R&B and jazz tunes and speedier, roadhouse bar numbers that highlighted her slide guitar chops and penchant for alternate tunings.

For me, it was her fourth guitar switch to an acoustic — when the band left the stage for a quick break — that offered the night’s most intimate moments, especially when Fish belted out a stunning, heartfelt rendition of Gladys Knight’s “If I Were Your Woman.” Fish admitted to the audience that covering Knight was not a feat she took lightly: “I know, I have big shoes to fill,” she told us, before delivering on her promise with a cover that Knight would have been honored to experience in person.

After another guitar switch — and what looked like pedal stomping (though her footwork was partially hidden behind a monitor) — Fish took the audience back to the tunes that helped her carve out a name for herself, like the fiery “Bitch on the Run.”

Unfortunately, I had to leave to relieve the babysitter before she played “Bulletproof,” which features a catchy, distorted riff in open G tuning played on her beloved cigar box guitar. I did get to hear it the next night, when friend Greg, who attended her show in Silver Spring, Maryland, filmed her playing it and sent me the video (thanks Greg!).

But in leaving her Fairfield set after the 13th song, I knew I was far from finished. Samantha Fish’s live performance inspired me to pick up my own Gibson SG the very next day, face my fear of using my Looper pedal, and rip into a series of blues solos, one after the next. In this way, Fish is not only talented but essential, with her eclectic blend of seductive, twangy, and (sometimes) twisted bombshell blues rock tunes that beckon listeners to come back for more.

Marisa Torrieri Bloom is the editor and founder of Rockmommy

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