As an artist, singer, songwriter, and guitarist, Samantha Fish has earned numerous accolades for her unique self-expression, which she channels through explosive riffs, visceral rhythms, and spine-tingling vocals. Samantha Fish was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. Fish started out playing the drums before switching to guitar at age fifteen. While growing up in Kansas City, she would frequently go to the local blues club the Knuckleheads Saloon to check out and listen to visiting blues artists. At age eighteen Fish began sitting in with whoever was playing at Knuckleheads Saloon on a given night. Samantha has gone on to record and release a dozen albums, the latest being the Grammy-nominated Death Wish blues, a collaboration with Jesse Dayton. In addition, Fish has shared the stage with such notable blues artists as Buddy Guy, the Tommy Castro Band, Shirley King, Kenny Neal, Watermelon Slim, and Tab Benoit. Other recent successes include performing at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads LA Festival, gracing the cover of Guitar World with Slash, and touring with both Slash and The Rolling Stones. At the 2025 NAMM Show, Samantha was honoured at the She Rocks Awards.
Joel Ginsberg from NAMM’s Oral History Program team sat down with Kansas-bred singer, songwriter and guitarist Samantha Fish to discuss her career and thoughts on making music.
The interview was recorded for NAMM’s fabulous Oral History program. The NAMM Oral History Program is an archive of recordings of interviews with people from all aspects of the music industry and includes everyone from Les Paul, Carol Kay, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock to Robby Krieger, Robbie Robertson, Hal Blaine, to Judy Collins and thousands more. https://www.namm.org/library/oral-history
In Samantha’s award acceptance speech at the 2025 She Rocks Awards at NAMM. she reflected on driving thousands of miles in a 15 seater van across America and when that van collapsed, she went and got another one! Samantha also acknowledged those women artists who had gone before and broken down barriers. Fish then closed the show with a rockin’ Kick Out The Jams and Bulletproof (Samantha’s speech and performance can be seen at the 1:35:15 mark of the AXS TV livestream)
Here’s the AXS TV She Rocks livestream




Photo by Scott Mitchell 2025 scottmitchellphotography.smugmug.com

Photo by Scott Mitchell 2025 scottmitchellphotography.smugmug.com

Photo by Scott Mitchell 2025 scottmitchellphotography.smugmug.com

Photo by Scott Mitchell 2025 scottmitchellphotography.smugmug.com

