MUSIC

Samantha Fish

PHOTO: KEVIN KING

Fish Swims ‘Faster’

Blues songstress Samantha Fish adds a Pop dimension on her new album

BY ALAN SCULLEY

Samantha Fish readily admits she was caught o guard when the pandemic hit in March 2020 and she had to cut short a European tour and return to her home in New Orleans. e shock was undoubtedly shared by many of her musician peers, and Fish never imagined the COVID-19 crisis would be more than a minor speed bump interrupting her busy 2020 touring schedule.

“I never thought this thing would last more than two weeks,” Fish says in a recent phone interview. “I didn’t really get comfortable with the idea that I was going to have time o until somewhere in the summertime when it was like, ‘OK, wake up, wake up! is is real.’”

“I just didn’t really know. e TV was yelling at me every morning telling me something kind of di erent. I just wasn’t sure. And we kept booking shows, but they’re pushing them back,” she continues. “I think seeing those dates on my calendar was like a little bit of a mind trick because I’d be like ‘Oh, July, we can make something work in July.’ en July went away.”

Eventually, Fish gured out a way to get back to playing live. She trimmed her band down from its previous sixperson lineup to a trio of bass, drums and Fish on her customary guitar and vocals and began playing drive-in and socially distanced shows at venues that could make reduced attendance work nancially.

“We got to October (2020) and we realized, OK, we can actually do this safely,” Fish says. “We just have to have really strict rules, not only for the venues and the fans, but for us as a band as well we have to follow protocols. But it’s nice just being able to do it, even though it’s a little more restrictive than usual. I still think we’re having fun and we’re getting to play music.”

Fish continued to play these sort of shows well into spring of 2021 before heading into more traditional venues as touring opened up last year. She’ll be playing with her band at Riverfront Live in the East End on March 4 with e Devon Allman Project.

Getting back on the road — even for shows with limited attendance — made good sense for Fish. She didn’t just sit

idle during 2020 waiting for touring to resume. She used the time to make her new album, Faster.

“I spent pretty much the whole year (2020) writing songs,” Fish says. “I did a bunch of virtual collaboration sessions over Zoom, like writing sessions. I just made the most of it.”

Faster was released in September, and it marks the next chapter in what has been an impressive run of albums for Fish.

After establishing herself as a Blues artist to watch with her 2013 debut, Black Wind Howlin’, and her 2015 follow-up, Wildheart — which had some Roots Rock mixed in — Fish really began to stretch out stylistically.

For Chills & Fever, released in March 2017, Fish went to Detroit to record with the Detroit Cobras and came out with a stellar album that still had a Blues element. But it also included rocking vintage R&B (“It’s Your Voodoo Working,” “Somebody’s Always Trying” and the song “Chills & Fever”); uptempo Rock (“He Did It” and “Crow Jane”); classic Soul (“Nearer To You” and “Hello Stranger”) and sultry balladry (“Either Way I Lose”). In December of that year, her music took another turn on Belle of the West, an album on which Fish successfully delved into rootsy Americana, with more of an acoustic, ddle-laced sound, plenty of spunk and still a Blues thread running through many of the songs.

For 2019’s Kill or Be Kind, Fish went to Memphis to record, plugged back in and delivered an album with stinging Rock (“Love Your Lies,” “Watch It Die” and “Bulletproof”); Soul (“Try Not to Fall in Love With You,” “She Don’t Live Here Anymore” and the title track); and Blues-tinged Pop ballads (“Fair-Weather” and “Dream Girl”), all wrapped in the most sophisticated songwriting of her career.

“I think Kill or Be Kind has that soulfulness,” Fish says. “Memphis was such a big part of it. You know, it’s like our backdrop says so much, like really sets the tone for the album.”

Faster covers its share of stylistic ground and introduces a few more new wrinkles to Fish’s sound. In particular, Fish says she was able to bring a Pop dimension to the album by co-writing and working with producer Martin Kierszenbaum.

“Martin’s a pretty incredible producer. He’s worked with some major Pop acts in the kind of mainstream eld,” Fish says, noting a resume that includes Sting, Lady Gaga and Madonna. “I think my goal with this record was I wanted to make songs that could cross over into a realm that I hadn’t crossed into yet, but also maintain the authenticity of who I am as an artist and a guitar player. at, of course, is always the challenge when you’re trying something new — maintaining who you are but also committing, committing to the process.

“I see these songs, it’s a very diverse record. ey all feel very di erent from one another. I think they’re empowering. ey’re fun. ere are some that are more skewed Rock & Roll. ere’s some Pop in uence. I feel like there’s Bluesy guitar all over it. My voice just tends to skew Bluesy anyway, so it’s kind of got this soulful quality to it.”

Now Fish is back where she spends much of her time each year: on tour. She enjoyed playing in the trio, a format that really relies on her guitar playing to carry the melodies, but also gives the musicians more room to be spontaneous and stretch out on songs if they are so inclined.

“ e thing with a trio is you can make it rock harder, play with di erent dynamics,” Fish says. “I mean, I love playing with big, lush bands, but the nature of it when you have more people on stage, we have little more orchestration that goes on. In the trio, I don’t prefer one over the other, to be completely honest. On certain songs, I completely miss the big band. And on other songs, I love the freedom that the trio kind of brings where you’re communicating with two people on stage, like, ‘Hey, I’m going to try something completely di erent. You guys follow me.’”

As 2021 progressed, Fish expanded her band, adding Matt Wade on keyboards, along with Ron Johnson on bass and Sara Tomek on drums.

And once Faster was released, she began to liberally feature those new songs in her sets, along with a few songs from Kill or Be Kind, while touching back on earlier material.

“We’re doing throwback stu . We’re doing stu from the Wildheart record,” Fish says. “ at’s cool for the old-school fans because they’ve been hollering out those requests for the last couple of years, and I’ve been, not ignoring them, I just forgot the songs. It’s nice to get to play those again.”

Samantha Fish plays Riverfront Live (4343 Kellogg Ave., East End) on March 4 with The Devon Allman Project. Get tickets and details at riverfrontlivecincy.com.

SOUND ADVICE

Lilly Hiatt

PHOTO: DYLAN REYES

Lilly Hiatt

Feb. 25 • Southgate House Revival

It was something of a surprise when Lilly Hiatt dropped Lately, her fth album of countri ed singer/songwriter Rock & Roll in October 2021. It had been just 17 months since her last record, Walking Proof, which drew praise from everyone from Paste to Pitchfork. en again, it probably shouldn’t have been a surprise — Walking Proof surfaced just as COVID-19 emerged in March 2020, eliminating any chance of Hiatt touring behind the record.

“Last year was tough,” Hiatt says in a press release that accompanied the release of Lately. “ at’s an understatement for certain. Tears were shed, lives were lost and lonely was a way of life. I have always felt lonely but never gone to the depths of solitude that I had in 2020. e irony of that is I was not alone at all in that space. Everyone had lost something, and we all were trying to rebuild our lives as we knew them. As a means of keeping sane, I started to write songs. Some of them sucked. I kept doing it though, because I had nothing else to ll my cup.” e 10 songs that populate Lately are often stripped back and stark, relying on straightforward lyrics both personal and universal. “Been” rides on a midtempo strut of intertwining guitar lines and Hiatt’s modest but a ecting voice as she reminisces about a time before COVID: “I close my eyelids tightly/I think of Amsterdam/Biking through the alley/Black Angels turned to 10/Plants and little house boats/I’d never seen before/Writing down on paper/And lusting after more.”

“Ride,” which opens with moody pedal steel guitar and brushed drumming, is an atmospheric, Bluesin ected ode to driving down the road with your companion of choice: “Fast down the pike/Sunset how we like/End of the day/Not much left to say/I love to ride with ya, honey/Nothing else matters when you’re with me.” e relatively upbeat titular track is the most curious of all, moving on a rudimentary Casio-toned keyboard ri and a weirdly optimistic lilt infusing Hiatt’s vocal delivery: “One day this will all be a distant memory/But right now it’s living inside of me/Wanna buy a pack of smokes/I wanna drive to the river/ is city’s got me beat/And I have nothing to give her.”

Doors open at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15. (Jason Gargano)

Ministry with The Melvins and Corrosion of Conformity

March 5 • Madison eater

Al Jourgensen, whose visage now conjures that of a Mad Max villain, is pessimistic about the future. e enduring frontman for Industrial Rock institution Ministry has long delved into the darker side of life, but his band’s last two records — 2018’s AmeriKKKant and 2021’s Moral Hygiene — take things to a new level. Both are concept albums about our current cultural climate and

the rise of right-wing radicalism and its skewing of everything from the arts to media to science. Jourgensen’s interest in politics comes as no surprise (see the song “N.W.O.,” from 1992’s Psalm 69, which was critical of the United States’ involvement in the Persian Gulf War) but his all-encompassing xation on the topic pervades nearly every moment of Ministry’s recent output.

“It’s just having any moral compass besides just thinking about yourself,” Jourgensen said in an October 2021 interview with Spin about his work’s conceptual preoccupations of late. “We’ve become not only a nation but a world full of narcissism and selfish values. ere needs to be some responsibility towards your fellow earthlings in your community. e idea that empathy is uncool — just like it was uncool in the 1930s — is how fascism rose. e rst thing (politicians) have to chip away at is your moral compass and your empathy. Once that’s gone, they can manipulate everything else.”

While Jourgensen has long been the only member left from Ministry’s late 1980s/early 1990s heyday, Moral Hygiene features some notable backing players: former Tool bassist Paul D’Amour; onetime Killing Joke synth/ programming guru John Bechdel; and a guest appearance by Dead Kennedys’ frontman/provocateur Jello Biafra, who also teamed with Jourgensen on the side project Lard.

Yet for all the lineup changes over the years, Ministry’s sonic formula remains much the same. Like AmeriKKKant, Moral Hygiene features disorienting ambient noises (from air-raid sirens to clips of Donald Trump’s hideous utterances), industrial beats, thunderous guitar ri s and Jourgensen’s evermenacing vocals, all of which wash over the listener like a continuous wave of mutilation. Foreboding about the future of civilization pervades, as song titles like “Alert Level,” “Disinformation,” “Broken System,” “We Shall Resist” and “Death Toll” might suggest.

Ministry’s tour-mates this time out include Stoner Rock icons e Melvins and Metal mainstays Corrosion of Conformity, all of which rose up out of an early 1980s scene that would be shocked to learn each act still exists four decades later. e Melvins will likely draw from the two albums they released in 2021 (Working with God, which opens with “I Fuck Around,” a cover of e Beach Boys “I Get Around,” and Five Legged Dog, their rst-ever acoustic record), as well as tunes from their 23 other studio e orts. ey should also inject a sense of levity to the proceedings, something we can all use right about now.

Doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets are $39.50 advance and $45 at the door. (JG)

UPCOMING CONCERTS

Postmodern Jukebox March 2, Taft Theatre

Beach House March 2, PromoWest Pavilion at OVATION

Mat Kearney March 5, Taft Theatre

All Them Witches March 12, Woodward Theater

Yola March 12, Taft Theatre

Henry Rollins March 13, Bogart’s

Greta Van Fleet March 29, Heritage Bank Center The Flaming Lips (with Heartless Bastards) April 5, Andrew J Brady Music Center

alt-J and Portugal. The Man April 8, PromoWest Pavilion at OVATION

Jack White April 13, Andrew J Brady Music Center

Justin Bieber April 19, Heritage Bank Center

Olivia Rodrigo April 22, Andrew J Brady Music Center

Journey April 24, Heritage Bank Center

Khruangbin April 29, Andrew J Brady Music Center

Leon Bridges May 6, Andrew J Brady Music Center

AJR May 10, Riverbend Music Center

Miranda Lambert and Little Big Town May 22, Riverbend Music Center