Artist:     Samantha Fish

Album:     Kill Or Be Kind

Label:     Rounder Records

Release Date:     09.20.2019 

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If you’re not familiar with Samantha Fish, Kill Or Be Kind is a great opportunity to get acquainted. The Kansas City-born rocker has won numerous awards including Best New Blues Artist in 2012, but it’s the company she keeps that says more about her talents. Blues giants such as Buddy Guy have welcomed her on stage and she’s worked with Mike Zito of the Royal Southern Brotherhood and Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars, both live and in the studio. For Kill Or Be Kind, Fish enlisted the songwriting support of Jim McCormick and other top-tier collaborators to produce an album that’s diverse in range and consistently excellent.

The first of eleven tracks, “Bulletproof,” shows off Fish’s slide guitar, building from a simple beat to an explosive chorus. Despite the song’s title, the lyrics are all about vulnerability, both musically and personally. The title track is a more soulful ballad and one of the album’s strongest vocal performances. What’s also nice about the songs here is that they don’t rely solely on Samantha’s guitar. There are plenty of horns and keyboards to round things out and provide a richer sound.

“Love Letters” is another slow build that reaches a hard-rocking crescendo while “Watch It Die” gets right down to business with a bluesy riff. “Try Not to Fall in Love With You,” “Fair Weather” and “Dirty” are examples of Fish’s sultry vocals before getting back to her blues roots with “She Don’t Live Around Here” and “You Got It Bad.”

As good as Kill Or Be Kind is, Fish in the studio is no match for Fish live. She’s a high-energy performer with a tight band and even tighter skirts. She’s sexy and the real deal musically.

Catch her if you can.

—Lou Montesano