Samantha Fish moves ‘Faster’
Blues singer-songwriter to stop at Virginia Arts Festival as she returns to touring
NORFOLK — The pandemic stopped singer-songwriter Samantha Fish’s busy 2020 touring schedule, but didn’t stop her from doing what she does best.
“I spent pretty much the whole year writing songs,” the contemporary blues singer said in a recent interview. “I did a bunch of virtual collaboration sessions over Zoom, like writing sessions. I just made the most of it.”
The result was her latest album, “Faster,” released in September.
Fish eventually figured out how to get back to playing live. She trimmed her band from its previous six-person lineup to a trio of bass, drums and Fish on her customary guitar and vocals. Her group began playing drive-in and socially distanced that could make reduced attendance work financially.
She started playing more traditional venues as touring opened up last year and will be at the Perry Pavilion in Norfolk on May 19 as part of the Virginia Arts
Festival.
“Faster,” marks the next chapter in what has been an impressive run of albums for Fish. She established herself as a blues artist to watch with her 2013 debut “Black Wind Howlin’ “and her 2015 follow-up, “Wild Heart,” which had some roots rock added to the mix. Fish began to stretch stylistically.
For “Chills & Fever,” released in March 2017, Fish went to Detroit to record with the members of the Detroit Cobras. They came out with a stellar album that still had a blues element, but also included rocking vintage R&B, up-tempo rock, classic soul and sultry balladry. That December, her music took another turn on “Belle of the West,” as Fish successfully delved into rootsy Americana, with more of an acoustic, but still spunky fiddle-laced sound.
For 2019’s “Kill or Be Kind,” Fish went to Memphis to record, plugged back in and delivered an album with a similar stylistic range to “Chills & Fever,” only with a more modern feel.
“Faster” covers its share of stylistic ground and introduces a few more wrinkles to Fish’s sound. In particular, Fish said she was able to bring a pop dimension to the album by co-writing and working with producer Martin Kierszenbaum. His resume includes Sting, Lady Gaga and Madonna.
“That, of course, is always the challenge when you’re trying something new, maintaining who you are, but also committing, committing to the process,” Fish said. “I see these songs, it’s a very diverse record. They all feel very different from one another. I think they’re empowering. They’re fun.”
Once “Faster” was released, she began to liberally feature those new songs in her sets, along with a few songs from “Kill or Be Kind,” while touching back on earlier material.
“That’s cool for the old-school fans because they’ve been hollering out those requests for the last couple of years, and I’ve been, not ignoring them, I just forgot the songs,” she said. “It’s nice to get to play those again.”