Samantha Fish
Songbirds Guitar Museum – Chattanooga, TN
March 22, 2018
By James Patterson
Photo by James R. PattersonAn evening with Samantha Fish at the Songbirds Guitar Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee, I was accompanied by my lovely wife who had discovered Samantha and turned Boomerocity.com on to her a year ago. With Lisa's background of being on the stage many times herself, she quickly pointed out the best songs, the best parts of songs, and (of course) noted what Samantha was wearing.
It is Samantha's new look and maybe what you would call her "stage look". It's as though she has stepped out of "years past" and onto the stage in checker board pedal pushers, a black midriff, off the shoulder top, red high heels and a hairdo certainly straight out of the 40's. Let's not forget that part of a performance is stage presence, and she definitely had that covered. Often, from certain angles she reminded me of Marylyn Monroe. That said, she brought the looks and the performance that kept the sold-out crowd's attention for two hours of wonderful live music.
Samantha had a fabulous band playing drums, bass, violin, keyboards and adding back-up vocals. But, you would also see members pick up or swapped out many different instruments, and at times creating a horn section with trumpet and alto sax. What a package: a superb band behind a lady that can sing, play some terrific lead guitar, great stage presence and makes sultry moves that make it hard to look away from the stage.
Might I also add, Samantha is not always satisfied with just the sounds of the band, she used a mega phone for one part of a song, she herself swapped out guitars for almost every song, also played slide guitar, and for one solo went to her knees to adjust controls to make her guitar sing.
Samantha Fish did many of her originals and even threw in an old Doo Wop song and a Rolling Stone song, both done in her style: the "Fish way".
What is her style? Some may say contemporary blues, but don't try to hang one label on her. We enjoyed blues to rock and roll and even a country ballad. Imagine any of Samantha's songs with the full and talented band, Samantha Fish is the "Real Deal". But, seriously don't just imagine, go see her when you can. The music lives on!
