Blues guitarist Samantha Fish and her six piece band will perform at the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall Wednesday, Oct. 18.
While Fish is well known as a purveyor of blues, having been lauded by such legends as Buddy Guy, the Royal Southern Brotherhood and Luther Dickinson, her real love is simply raw, scrappy rock and roll.
“I grew up on it,” she insisted. “Working with Luther on my last album further instilled that spirit in me. It made me realize just how much that basic, unfettered sound means to me, and how well it ties into soul music, R&B, country and so many other forms of music that are essential even today.”
It’s little wonder that when it came time to record her new album, “Chills & Fever” (released March 17, 2017), Fish set her sights on Detroit, the home of soul, Motown, legendary R&B and the much edgier rock-n-roll of Iggy Pop, Jack White and The White Stripes.
It was there that she joined forces with members of the Detroit Cobras, a band whose insurgent ethic has made them darlings of the Midwest punk/blues scene. The two entities bonded over a common love of classic soul and rollicking rhythms, covering songs from the 1960s and 1970s, including indelible melodies from the pens of legends like Jackie DeShannon, Jerry Ragovoy, Bert Berns and Allen Toussaint. With that as her starting point, Fish and the band then created an album that’s best described as a pure slab of rocking rhythm n’ blues.
“I listened to a lot of soul music, and I dug deep into people like Otis Redding and Ray Charles,” Fish recalls. “I was also influenced by people like North Mississippi's R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. It’s a less restrained style of music than the sound people may be used to hearing from me. It’s definitely a different facet of my personality.
“I don’t think I ever enjoyed making a record quite as much as I enjoyed making this one,” Fish continued. “I love the sound of the brass and the edgier intensity. Channeling timeless artists who sang like their lives depended on it. To me, that's what this music is all about."
Doors open for the concert at 6:30 p.m., with the show starting at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $28 and can be purchased at pvconcerthall.com or by calling (904) 209-0399.
