Samantha Fish opened her UK and European tour in Scotland, Glasgow to be precise at the lovely venue called St Luke‘s. With Samantha every album has a different sound and vibe so it is no surprise that the gigs tend to be similar! This time around she focussed on her new quite rocky album Kill Or Be Kind her sixth of her career. The show was sold out well in advance which was terrific. The young lady from Kansas City Missouri is an award-winning artist in both blues and soul as well as for her guitar playing and her vocals, which is not surprising as both are excellent. My God, her vocals can be so sultry what with her southern drawl. She can also belt it out when needed. The set obviously focussed on the new album with 7 of the 13 tracks coming from that.
The set opened with a song sung primarily by her guest (and second keyboard player Nicholas David) with her coming on near the end to kick into the first track of the new album “Bulletproof” which featured her on the cigar box-shaped guitar where she immediately showed off her slide skills. Keys were important throughout the set with plenty of fills and touches, especially when she changed guitars during songs.
From the looks, nods and winks it looked like it was very off the cuff and the band are allowed to play around a bit. She certainly likes to showcase them, it is no one person show! The crowd very happily and eagerly joined in on the “fade away” lyric lines on “Watch It Die”. Samantha had a laugh with us all on the lead up to “Little Baby” she remarked that we seem to “like to jump around to this, so I just have to play it. You make it look like a bluesy moshpit”. What amazed me was how she could join in on stage jumping around in the heels she was wearing. That is yet another talent I think.
I loved the way the little drum solos went around the various guitar solos and licks she was playing nearer the end. She also made a comment about our reactions when she asks a simple question like “would you like a blues song” and how we cheered like mad compared to a single person perhaps shouting “yeah” elsewhere. She called us “super excited folks” which only resulted in more cheers and loads of folks giving it a “yeah”!
She did a duet mid-show with the guest keyboardist (Nicholas David) on a track from his solo album which it seems Samantha produced. The track “Say Goodbye” had her on acoustic guitar and doing some singing. It was more of a country-style song (as I said she is very versatile and mixes it up with different styles) which although lyrically sounded sad was reasonably upbeat musically.
Continuing to keep things varied she performs some songs that are more mellow and they can be quite stunning. “She Don’t Live Around Here” shows her vocals at her most fragile, emotional and yet powerful. I was spellbound as was everyone else as you could have heard a pin drop due to how dragged into the song we all were. Equally if not even more beautiful was “Fair Weather” which she remarked was “a song for you, not about you (as she points round the audience whilst laughing) as that would be cruel.”
When she rocks, she ROCKS, like on “Highways Holding Me Now” which featured a particularly sweet slide guitar solo on it. It also has such a great chorus which folks sang along. She finished on a rocker called “Bitch On The Run” which allowed her to introduce all the band members and allow them to all show their musical chops whilst not losing sight of the groove of the song. They were sort of winging it, just going with the flow and having a ball and not caring about the time! It was a very cool and fun end to another great Samantha Fish gig.
Samantha Fish continues on her UK ad European tour for the next month playing Nottingham (March 1), Manchester (March 3), Cardiff (March 4), London (March 5), Norwich (March 6), Bristol (March 7) and Brighton (March 8) before going onto Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany before heading back to the States where she is playing all over. For goodness sake, if you get the chance get along (if you can get a ticket, a few UK shows are sold out in advance) and see a wonderfully talented band led by the exquisite lady herself!
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[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeLSUGv-Pq4[/embedyt]
