By L. Kent Wolgamott
This fall, Samantha Fish is joining the likes of Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Eric Johnson, Zakk Wylde and Taj Mahal on the Experience Hendrix Tour. The show comes to the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts on Wednesday, Sept. 25.
Though flattered to be among that lineup, Fish has no plans to try to play like Hendrix.
“Those are amazing guitar players, and so to be, you know, in that lineup is pretty, pretty crazy. But, you know, I feel like I just kind of do what I do,” Fish said.
Last year, Fish played Eric Clapton’s Crossroads 2023, this summer she joined Slash’s S.E.R.P.E.N.T. festival tour and now she’s on the Experience Hendrix Tour—all prestigious gigs that showcase some of the world’s best guitarists, nearly all of them male.
“I definitely feel like there has been a severe lack of representation for women in the industry, and especially in the guitar-player world,” Fish said. “But there’s actually more and more all the time. I mean, there’s some incredible women out there, instrumentalists doing it …
“But as far as earning a spot [as one of the world’s best], you know, I have a thing that I do, and I feel like I have a voice on my instrument. The thing about guitar, it’s about having a voice,” she said. “There’s so many amazing players out there. To stand out and be unique, you have to connect with what makes you, you. I’m trying to do that. That’s my main focus on guitar, and I feel like that’s probably why I’m getting some recognition.”
Teenage Musician
Fish began finding that voice as a teenager, growing up in a musical household in Kansas City.
“I started on the drums,” she said. “That was because I came up in a family of guitar players, and I wanted to do something different. Naturally, there were just guitars kind of laying around the house. My dad played, my sister was playing, all my uncles were guitar players, all my dad’s friends were guitar players. So I picked it up … I just felt really connected to guitar. And it was like, ‘Damn it, this is my instrument.”
Hearing records by Bonnie Raitt and Stevie Ray Vaughan, along with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and especially the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers, the budding guitarist was drawn to the blues that has become her stock-in-trade.
“I liked rock and roll and I was always kind of inquisitive about, like, who does Keith Richards like to listen to?” she said. “That was blues. So I started kind of going backwards and picking up different records; I just started collecting different CDs of different eclectic blues musicians.”
Fish has played venues around the Midwest for more than a decade and a half, since the Samantha Fish Band released its debut record (Live Bait, 2009), and started branching out to other markets while she continued building up her chops.
“My first band that I put together, I was like 20, 21,” Fish said. “I had X’s on my hands, which means you can’t drink.”
As her profile grew, Fish, now 35, earned blues guitarist honors from the Blues Music Awards and Living Blues awards, released a string of solo albums and most recently joined Texas singer/guitarist Jesse Dayton on last year’s Grammy-nominated Death Wish Blues collaborative album. The 16-month international tour with Dayton wrapped up just in time for her to go out with Slash on his S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival tour.
Since she doesn’t have a new album, when Fish plays her own shows around tours like Experience Hendrix, her sets are made up of some of her favorites from her 10 solo recordings and a few songs from Death Wish Blues that can be performed without Dayton.
Singing the Blues
Regardless of whether she’s doing Hendrix or her own material, one thing those who have previously seen Fish are sure to notice is her vocals, which have, over the last few years, grown stronger and more expressive.
“I’ll be honest with you, I’ve worked my ass off on my voice,” she said. “I’ve always told people, you can go watch a guitar player and pick up a couple things just by watching because you can see their hands moving, and you can kind of see things happening in front of your face.
She continued, “But singing, you can’t really understand the mechanics of that by watching somebody do it. You have to go and learn how to control your breath and how to hold yourself. I’m always trying to figure out different ways to do it and stretch my capabilities. I’ve grown a lot as a singer.”
Nor is she resting on her instrumentalist laurels—she works on her six-string skills each time she goes on stage, just like the other artists on the Experience Hendrix Tour.
“Guitar is a never-ending journey,” Fish said. “You talk to any of these guys out here, these stellar, badass players, and everybody is still looking for it. We’re all still searching for it. That’s kind of what makes it fun.”
‘Experience Hendrix’ comes to the Luther Burbank Center on Wednesday, Sept. 25. Ticket prices start at $79 plus fees, at lutherburbankcenter.org/event/experience-hendrix24.
