SAMANTHA FISH & JESSE DAYTON

Dynamic blues force Samantha Fish and country outlaw Jesse Dayton are getting ready to release their upcoming album, Death Wish Blues, out May 19th on Rounder Records.

Produced by Jon Spencer the pair’s latest offering showcases the raw power of Fish and Dayton’s guitar playing, both with foundations grounded in blues music.

So far 2023 has been busy for the dynamic duo. “Jesse and I finished out the last year with some dates together on the West Coast, and on the East Coast. And then we did our own bands. I just did a tour with my band in the States. And then we went to Australia. We are getting ready to head to Europe and do some dates there. So, I’m ready to hit the ground running,” says Sam.

Jesse adds: “I just got off this thing called the Outlaw Cruise with Steve Earle and a bunch of those people. I sat in with a bunch of friends on the boat. I sat in with The Mavericks.” With such hectic touring schedules for the duo, it’s remarkable that they were able to work together at all. “Sam was in Australia the whole time,” says Jesse. “Our schedules are just crazy. It’s amazing that we wrote songs and recorded a record.”

But how did the pair come together to record this body of work? “Jesse, and I started talking about doing this last year, around the beginning of the year,” said Sam. “We reconnected and I saw him in New Orleans play a show. There had been some chatter swirling about a collaborative project that I’ve been wanting to do. And when I saw Jesse, it hit me that if he was into it, I think we’d be perfect doing this together.”

“Everything has been, looking back on it more organic than you think,” says Jesse. “We went to a dude’s backyard studio in New Orleans and played some covers. Sam came out and saw me play at this bar, and we hung out afterwards. It’s all kind of happened real organically without anything feeling too forced.”

In terms of the sound and musical direction on the album, Jesse says: “A lot of it had to do with Jon Spencer. He came in and stripped us away of all those things that are the same kind of things that had been going on in the blues genre for a while.” He adds: “Sonically this record is very different. It has kind of a punk energy to it. A kind of raw, everybody in the studio thing. So, I was equally excited about doing this record with Jon in New York. Because it was like wow, that’s different. Let’s try to change this thing up a little bit.”

Death Wish Blues follows off the back of the Stardust Sessions EP. Although at the time of recording the EP, the pair hadn’t contemplated making an album together. “We were totally dipping our toe in the water. I don’t think we’d even written any songs. It was nice to be able to do those covers and give ourselves a foundation. Like, let us go be a Garage-

Band for a little bit before you throw us to the wolves. It was fun,” says Jesse. “I remember when Samantha suggested the Townes Van Zandt song, which might be one of her standard songs, but in the circles of Townes, it’s not one of the first go-to ones. And when she said that I thought me and this chick are going to hit it off just fine.”

The first single to be released from the album is titled Deathwish “That was one of the first songs. When we were writing together in New Orleans, I remember I had that melody in my head, that little top hook, and I just played it for him. I said what do you think about this over these changes?” explains Sam. “He went home and he wrote the coolest story surrounding it and sent it to me and we just started building off of that. It’s definitely about a relationship between a man and a woman.”

“I had been watching all these films noir movies. The late 40s, and early 50s, film noir black and white crime movies. I was nerding out on all that stuff during COVID because we we’re all stuck in the house,” says Jesse. “The thing I really love about all the female artists that I listened to, no matter who it is - The Runaways or Joni Mitchell or whoever it is. They have a certain empowerment, and so that’s kind of what the lyrics of that song are about. Just some predator guy, getting the whole script flipped on him, by this girl who’s seen and done it all. And I knew that Sam, she’s got all that character, and she could sell that idea in her sleep.”

Samantha Fish and Jesse Dayton will be embarking on a UK tour together later this year. “We both love the UK. And a lot of that music informed this record or informed these performances,” says Jesse. “I’m a total nerd for all that music that came out of the British invasion. I’m a diehard Stones, number one fan, and I love The Clash. And I love all the Britpop stuff. There’s just so much stuff there that I think when we get up on stage, they’re going to be special shows because we’re going to know that we’re in a place that’s kind of sacred to us.” In terms of how the show will work.

Samantha said that: “We have 12 songs on a brand-new album that’s coming out. I’m excited about every single song. And then we have three songs from an EP. And then we also put together a show, because we started playing live shows back in December. And so, we put together a show with some of our original material. And some cool covers that we handpicked that we thought would fit the vibe and the parameters of what we’re doing. But really this is an intentionally collaborative experience.”

Samantha concludes: “We set out to do these songs together and I’m excited about reimagining this album that we just created for the live stage and finding a way to perform all these songs and tell the story because I mean, that’s the story. We were in this studio and made this cool piece of art. So, I think the focus is definitely going to be there. But we’ll throw in some of our original material here and there. We’ve got a lot of time to fill up there. So, we’ll be doing a little bit of everything, but a lot of what we did together.”Samantha Fish and Jesse Dayton’s album “Death Wish Blues” is released by Rounder Records on May 19th. Samantha and Jesse tour the UK October 19-28th. Pre-order the album and book tickets at www.samanthafish.com.

Words: Adam Kennedy

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