When Samantha Fish’s stately (and, quite frankly, enormous) tour bus stopped outside the Guitarist studios during her recent UK live dates, the first order of the day was to commiserate with her.
Her latest studio album, Paper Doll, was up for Best Contemporary Blues Album at this year’s Grammy Awards but sadly missed out. However, she was philosophical about the whole experience.
“It was an honour,” she says, “I was really excited and humbled because you got to go. Who knows if it’ll ever happen again? So if you don’t go, you might never get to go. So I went, I dressed up, had fun, had a couple cocktails and it was a great day. And we didn’t end up winning, but being nominated is really the recognition of your art and a nice reassurance that I’m on the right path.”
Samantha’s new live album is called Paper Doll (Live) and it’s something that has been in the pipeline for quite some time, as she explains…
What finally persuaded you to release a live album now?
It’s something my fans have been asking for a long time and I keep telling them, ‘Yeah, we’re going to do it,’ and then five years later, they’re like, ‘She’s still not doing it…’
It’s a timing thing with live records, but I felt like it was a good time because we recorded this last [studio] record, Paper Doll, with my touring band and so, I know it sounds stupid, but, to me, it felt live. A lot of studio albums have dynamics and everything, but we had something on this last record.
We didn’t play with a click track, so we’re changing tempos in the middle of the song, and there’s just something about it that felt really open – it just lends itself to the stage and what we’re doing. I felt like it was a good time to capture it.
Where was it recorded?
“We did it at the Bijou Theatre in Knoxville, Tennessee. It’s an old theatre; the record label chose it because they know it sounds good and looks good. They brought in a camera crew and we had our lights, and we brought in the McCrary Sisters to sing backup vocals. It added an extra layer of dynamics and really beefed up the show and made it special.
Live recording can sometimes add nerves for the performer. How was your experience?
Not only are we recording it, but we’re filming it, too! So, “Try to look natural,’ right? I caught myself a couple times where I was thinking so hard about performing it perfectly that I thought, “You haven’t moved from this spot in, like, half a song. You need to just play your damn show!” You have to take it out of your mind a little bit.
For me, it’s about connecting with the audience. Anytime I’m feeling like, “Oh God, oh God…” I try to find a person that looks like they’re having a good time and [tell myself] “Okay, this is what I’m here to do – entertain that person, so forget about all this other stuff.”
It’s just hard, you know, because you want it to be perfect and I was taking notes as I was going and I really screwed up a song that night. At the end of the night I came out and said, “Hey, we’re gonna do it again, so just pretend to be as enthusiastic as you were the first time!” Everybody’s understanding and there’s a little freedom in that.
When you tell people you’re making a live record, they’re a little more open to you repeating songs; it’s hard to nail it in one shot. Things go wrong, guitars fall out of tune, singers don’t sing in key. I’m the singer and I’m the guitar player. The band sounded great, I was the one with the most problems. It’s hard to accept that when you’re a perfectionist, but you have to.
You’ve been using Gibson SGs live and in the studio for quite a lot of your career. What’s the attraction?
I find that the SG is the most versatile guitar in my whole arsenal. Some people might disagree and think, ‘No, it can only sound a certain way.’ But I feel like I can just apply it to a range of songs and I can shape the tone in a way.
And, honestly, it’s also my most comfortable guitar. The way the neck feels… I just feel the most comfortable playing it. When I stretch out on solos and everything, it fits my personality.
When I first got it, it just felt like me, and I’ve had [the one I’m using live] since 2015. I’ve relic’d it myself, you know, through the sweat and everything, just playing it – I didn’t actually take any tools to it. I really love this guitar. It feels good in my hands. It’s expressive when I need it to be. I can tame it when I need to. And it looks cool.
What drew you to the Gibson SG in the first place?
I don’t know how or why I landed on the SG. I guess sometimes you’re just naturally called to things. But I kind of chalk it up to three things: Angus Young, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Derek Trucks. They can all make them sound good, so I was hoping I could, too.
What pedals are you using on your ’board for the current live show?
I’m probably gonna get 150 guitarists telling me how I’m doing this wrong, but this is just what works for me. [My ’board is] a hot mess, but it’s been working for a long time. I generally go into my volume pedal first and I use that [for] volume swells. I really love pedal steel [effects] and I’ll do that in solos.
I see a lot of guitar players do that with their volume control, but they’re kind of far away from me on most guitars, you know? So I haven’t found a comfortable way to do that and pull it off effortlessly. So that’s a good way to cheat. Then I go into a tuner, a [TC Electronic] PolyTune; you know, it works.
Then I go into an Analog Man King Of Tone, which is probably my favourite, heaviest-relied-upon pedal. It sounds like a tube amp. The next one was a gift: it’s called Jail Guitar Doors [MXR JGD1 Drive], and it’s the MC5 drive pedal my tour manager gave me because we play Kick Out the Jams.
I’m a big MC5 fan. It’s a massive pedal with a single button, so you don’t have many options
I’m a big MC5 fan. It’s a massive pedal with a single button, so you don’t have many options.
My next one would be the JHS Mini Foot Fuzz, this tiny little fuzz pedal that sounds crazy. I generally try to turn the volume up and I keep the fuzz around one o’clock so it doesn’t get too muddy. I go into the MXR Carbon Copy analogue delay, which is also a favourite. Then I’ve got my [Electro-Harmonix] Nano Pog, which is an octave [pedal]. Fun, weird stuff.
I like to use it on Black Wind Howlin’ and a couple other songs. Then we go into the [Boss TR-2] Tremolo, which is a new one for me. I got it for the song Don’t Say It. Then a [Boss PS-5] Super Shifter, which I use very minimally, really only for divebombs, though I know it’s got a million uses.
You have a new guitar on tour with you at present. Tell us about your sparkly ES-335.
I’ve wanted a 335 for several years, but when it comes to picking out and purchasing a guitar, I wait until one comes along, then I’m like, “That. I need that.” My friend Mike Zito had a sparkly Firebird and I was like, “Oh, that’s beautiful, where’d you get it?” [He said], “You need to go check out this guitar shop in St Louis.’
And they had all these Custom Shop sparkly 335s and pretty much every kind of Gibson. I saw this one and I had to have it. It looks like a disco ball and I just knew it would look great with my wardrobe and our lights.
You know, you kind of see the whole picture like it’s gonna fit right in. And I knew what they sound like, and you kind of hope that it’s gonna feel and play great. But, I mean, you can’t go wrong. I pulled it right out of the box and it played great.
It’s a Gibson Custom Shop. It’s a beautiful guitar. I’ve been wanting one of these for a long time because I really like how dark they can get, how resonant they are when you’re playing – and they just scream. I can get a lot of feedback with the amp, like really controlled feedback when I need it, and it just has great tone. I love it.
How does it differ from the SG?
It’s definitely got more body to it. The SG, as much as I like it, I beef it up with pedals and with amplifiers. This one, I almost have to tame it. You just have to approach things a little differently – like I can come out and throw on my crazy MC5 pedal, turn the amp all the way up with the SG and I’ve still got to work to keep the thickness of it.
With this one, if I plugged it in with that same kind of effect, it’d be screaming – a lot of feedback and everything. So there’s a little bit of a taming thing [going on]. But knowing where this threshold is it just gives you a lot of dynamics to play with. So one’s not better than the other; you’ve just got to approach it a little differently
Do you think that touring and playing live is getting easier for you?
Certain things get easier. You know, the way that we started travelling in a [tour] bus. So that’s easier in some ways. But then a new challenge will arise: so this is easier in this way, but this thing is a little more complicated, you know? That’s just life, right?
But I’m still in it. I try not to do things the hardest way possible, but sometimes you’ve got to get to the gig, you’ve got to make it happen. The travel sometimes can be a little bit daunting and exhausting, but I’m still down for it.
- Paper Doll (Live) is out now via Rounder.
- This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.
