Samantha Fish - Paper Doll

 

Samantha Fish — Paper Doll

Limited edition "Clear Smoke" vinyl LP

Nine powerhouse songs provide unstoppable force and illuminating insight!

One of the most formidable guitarists of her generation, Samantha Fish deals in her own unmatched brand of bravado, bringing both mind-blowing power and extraordinary emotionality to everything she creates. Since first introducing the world to her larger-than-life talent, the multi-award-winning festival headliner has built a triumphant career whose latest milestones include earning a Grammy nomination for Death Wish Blues (her 2023 collaboration with rocker Jesse Dayton) and opening for The Rolling Stones on their final 2024 U.S. tour date.

On her new album Paper Doll, Fish offers up nine powerhouse songs that hit with an unstoppable force, each delivered with an exquisite dose of illuminating insight, soul-soothing empathy, and-above all-newly heightened clarity of vision. "It's taken me years to finally find my voice in a studio setting," Fish admits. "But with this record I took everything I had, and slammed it right on the table."

Fish's first-ever album recorded with her touring band, Paper Doll takes its title from the first song the Kansas City-bred musician penned for the LP: a raw yet reflective battle cry that perfectly encapsulates the album's spirit of unapologetic defiance. "That song's a feminist anthem in a way-but then again, every song's a feminist anthem when you're a woman writing from your own experience," says Fish. "It's about rebelling against other people's expectations of who you're supposed to be, which feels pretty relevant for the times we're living in right now."

Recorded at The Orb in Austin and Savannah Studios in L.A., Paper Doll marks the latest entry in an uncompromising and endlessly adventurous catalog that's found her working with luminaries like Jon Spencer of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion as well as Luther Dickinson (co-founder of North Mississippi Allstars and former member of the Black Crowes). This time around, Fish reunited with Detroit garage-rock icon Bobby Harlow, who also produced her 2017 LP Chills & Fever.

"When I look back on Chills & Fever I realize that Bobby was pushing me into some cool and dangerous places, but at that phase in my life I was holding back a bit," she says. "Now I'm at a point where I'm ready to give people something totally unexpected, something that breaks the pop formula and really takes its time to tell a story with the guitar playing."

For help in shaping Paper Doll's magnificently rowdy but nuanced sound, Fish joined forces with bandmates Ron Johnson (bass), Jamie Douglass (drums), and Mickey Finn (keys), cutting most of the album in the midst of a grueling touring schedule that included a run of dates with Slash on the legendary guitarist's S.E.R.P.E.N.T. festival in summer 2024. "I'd never made a record on the road like that," Fish reveals. "Even though it was so intense, it felt good to keep up the momentum from the live show. It helped us make an album that's got a real living, breathing pulse to it."

 

Side A

1. I’m Done Runnin’

2. Can Ya Handle The Heat?

3. Lose You

4. Sweet Southern Sounds

5. Off In The Blue

Side B

1. Fortune Teller

2. Rusty Razor (feat. Mick Collins)

3. Paper Doll

4. Don’t Say It

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