Samantha Fish - Black Wind Howlin '2013

Tracks list

Take cover: there’s a storm coming. With its lyrical thunderbolts,
lightning-flash fretwork and ground-shaking grooves, Black Wind Howlin’
is a record to blow your roof off – and Samantha Fish has stood at the
eye of the hurricane. “It has a rebellious streak,” says the
bandleader of her game-changing new album, “and a prevalent theme is,
‘I’m not gonna take your sh*t anymore...’”

Released in September 2013 through Ruf Records, Black Wind Howlin’ flips
a finger at the cliché of the ‘difficult second album’, firing
off 12 classic tracks that chart Samantha’s evolution as songwriter,
gunslinger and lyricist. “Since completing Runaway back in 2011,”
she reflects of her solo debut, “I’ve been on tour pretty much
non-stop. I’ve spent a lot of time writing, playing and listening to
music. I feel like the themes and sound of my music have matured. To me,
it’s about the human experience from my perspective, as well as people
I’ve come into contact with over the last few years.”

While lesser artists work to a template or settle into a pigeonhole, Samantha
shifts her shape across the Black Wind Howlin’ tracklisting. She can be
brutally rocking on cuts like the tour bus snapshot of Miles To Go
(“Twelve hours to Reno/ten hours til the next show”), the swaggering
Sucker Born (“Vegas left me weary, LA bled me dry/skating on fumes as I
crossed the Nevada line…”) and the venomous Go To Hell (“Oh,
this ain’t my first rodeo/You hit yourself a dead end/Your voodoo eyes,
ain’t gonna cast a spell/So you can go to hell!”).
“I’ve become tougher,” she notes of these head-banging
moments, “and I think that was reflected in the sound we went for.”

And yet, elsewhere, backed by the versatile production of Royal Southern
Brotherhood guitarist and longtime collaborator Mike Zito, you’ll find
Samantha shifting gears to the aching slide-guitar balladry of Over You
(“Echoing words, said I’d never make it on my own…”)
and the redemptive country strum Last September (“Don’t remember
the curves of my face/Can’t feel the warmth in my embrace/Well I’m
here to remind you…”). She might stop off for a gritty cover of
Howlin’ Wolf’s Who’s Been Talkin’, and co-wrote Go
To Hell with Zito, but all other tracks are Samantha’s self-penned
originals, and it’s a mix to keep listeners on their toes. “I
wanted this record to have a modern rocking sound,” she explains of the
light-footed vibe. “I also wanted it to have elements of Americana,
country and roots.”

The sessions proved just as rewarding as the writing. As a seasoned road warrior
who will spend much of 2013 burning tarmac, recording at Dockside Studios in
Maurice, Louisiana was a rare chance for Samantha to put down roots, flanked by
a first-call band that included Royal Southern Brotherhood rhythm section
Yonrico Scott (drums) and Charlie Wooton (bass), back-up guitar and vocals from
Zito, plus guest appearances from Johnny Sansone (harmonica), Bo Thomas (fiddle
on Last September) and Paul Thorn (vocals on Go To Hell). “I had a dream
team of musicians and special guests,” she recalls. “And Dockside
Studios quickly became one of my favourite places on earth.”

But it was another venue, some years earlier, that set Samantha on her musical
path. The songwriter recalls her first musical taste as the classic rock of The
Rolling Stones and Tom Petty, alongside contemporary artists like Sheryl Crow
and The Black Crowes, but after several underage clandestine visits to the
Knuckleheads Saloon blues club in her native Kansas City, she followed the
thread from modern masters like Zito and Tab Benoit, through fallen ’80s
heroes like Stevie Ray Vaughan, right back to the pre-war Delta masters.
“I fell in love with it,” she told Premier Guitar of her growing
passion for the form, “and started doing my homework by listening to the
old guys like Son House and Skip James.”

Soon enough, appreciation for the blues had spilled over into application, and
by the age of 18, Samantha had settled on a searing lead guitar style that
expressed her own voice rather than mimicking the clichéd blues licks
note-for-note. Home practice didn’t scratch the itch, and she broke into
a dues-paying period on the Kansas City jam circuit: an apprenticeship at the
sharp end that tightened her musical chops, polished her stagecraft and gave her
the grit to overcome occasional scepticism about her age, hair tone and gender.
“I always hated the idea of the gimmick,” she told Premier Guitar.
“People come out just because you are a girl, but then you have so much
more to prove once you get them in the door.”

But Samantha got them in – and kept them in – and after an early
live recording from Knuckleheads found its way into the hands of label supremo
Thomas Ruf, the young bandleader’s trajectory was changed from dreamer to
signed artist. Fish’s first appointment for the label was to join Cassie
Taylor and Dani Wilde on the 2011 Girls With Guitars album: a whip-cracking
three-female release that the trio doused with added rocket fuel on Ruf’s
famous Blues Caravan tour of Europe and the US that year. “I don’t
get that whole competitive thing, especially when I play with the girls,”
insisted Samantha. “When you start trying to get over the top of somebody,
you lose what makes it great. That’s when you lose the musical aspect of
it.”

With her name buzzing on the blues scene and the iron hot, Samantha struck again
that same year with Runaway, her solo debut on Ruf. With ten hot tracks –
of which nine were originals – and production once again from Zito, this
was a debut album that announced the depth of this newcomer’s talent,
mixing up gutsy riff-blues rockers like Down In The Swamp with the mellow
small-hours jazz of Feelin’ Alright, while marinating her songwriting in
the groove of the Rolling Stones and even tipping a hat to Heart.
“It’s all the sounds I grew up with,” she explained,
“with my own spin.”

Hitting a receptive international rock press, Runaway was hailed as a thrilling
opening gambit, earning a string of rave reviews and accolades, of which the
Blues Music Award (BMA) for ‘Best New Artist Debut’ in 2012 was
perhaps the most auspicious. “I’m truly humbled by the
recognition,” Samantha admitted. “I can barely wait to make record
#2...”

So here it is. Harder, darker, bolder and better than even its revered
predecessor, this is the sound of an artist on the brink of the big-time with
both hands on the wheel. “I really got to do exactly what I wanted to do
on Black Wind Howlin’,” says Samantha, “and I’m
incredibly proud of it...”

Samantha Fish, guitar, vocals
Yonrico Scott, drums, percussion
Charlie Wooten, bass
Mike Zito, guitar, vocals
Paul Thorn, vocals
Johnny Sansone, harmonica
Bo Thomas, fiddle

Tracklist:
01. Samantha Fish - Miles To Go (2:45)
02. Samantha Fish - Kick Around (4:26)
03. Samantha Fish - Go To Hell (4:03)
04. Samantha Fish - Sucker Born (4:56)
05. Samantha Fish - Over You (4:18)
06. Samantha Fish - Whos Been Talking (3:23)
07. Samantha Fish - Lay It Down (4:42)
08. Samantha Fish - Lets Have Some Fun (4:29)
09. Samantha Fish - Heartbreaker (5:34)
10. Samantha Fish - Foolin Me (4:28)
11. Samantha Fish - Black Wind Howlin (6:54)
12. Samantha Fish - Last September (4:11)

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