Samantha Fish’s last release, a collaboration with Jesse Dayton entitled Death Wish Blues, was nominated for a Grammy in 2024. Paper Doll, Samantha’s latest album, has been nominated for Best Contemporary Blues Album at the 2026 Grammy Awards. She has opened for The Rolling Stones, who waved at her in passing. When they’re dead and gone, she’ll be playing the same venues as a headliner.
“When you’re surrounded by real people, they don’t care. I’m out there on the road, and there’s just very real things that you interface with all the time. So, you might be feeling high and mighty one day, and the next day something goes crazy weird. It’s like, well, this is a bit of a humbling experience. So, it keeps you grounded is what I’m saying.”
The fact that Samantha isn’t stuck on herself helps, too.
Much of Paper Doll was co-written by her producer Bobby Harlow. “He’s very intense, very passionate and very enthusiastic about music. He’s not just listening to a song. ‘That’s cool. We’re going to try to get textures on it.’ We’re in the studio and he’s telling me, ‘Hey, that lyric doesn’t really fit. You’ve got like a mouthful there. We’ve got to figure out how to streamline that.’ You know, that’s part of the writing credit for me.