Released by: Rounder Records
Release Date: May 19th, 2023
Genre: Blues Rock
Links: https://found.ee/SFJDDeathwish
Line Up:
Samantha Fish – Vocals, Guitar, Cigar Box Guitar, Junkyard Percussion
Jesse Dayton – Vocals, Guitar, Baritone Guitar, Tambourine
Kendall Wind – Bass
Mickey Finn – Keyboards
Aaron Johnston – Drums
Tracklist:
1. Deathwish (2:39)
2. Down In The Mud (2:52)
3. Riders (3:40)
4. Settle For Less (3:09)
5. Trauma (3:06)
6. No Apology (4:16)
7. Flooded Love (2:39)
8. Lover On The Side (2:48)
9. Rippin’ And Runnin’ (4:21)
10. Dangerous People (3:31)
11. Supadupabad (2:06)
12. Know My Heart (3:47)
When speaking about top Female Blues Rock artists, you can without any hesitation whatsoever add Samantha Fish to that list. She has been tearing up the world of Blues Rock since she came into the arena in 2009. Racking up countless Billboard chart-toppers, and multiple Artist of the Year nods, add that on top of her constant drive to push boundaries in the genre and relentless touring, she has grown her fan base exponentially. This brings us to this new collaboration with Jesse Dayton, who boasts an incredible background himself that tops with recording with the likes of Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings. Dayton has been in the scene a long time and has had the honor to grease elbows in the Austin, TX scene with some of the biggest names it has to offer. His journey has taken him on some pretty impressive paths. This makes this collab with Fish an interesting one since both artists are a few crossover trailblazers when it comes to their music.
What you have here is a culmination that transpired in 10 days from when the album was recorded, two multi-faceted musicians coming together and letting it rip raw and bringing their influences perfectly to the table. The EP “Stardust Session” was released in 2022 and featured —a three-song effort featuring covers of classic tracks like Townes Van Zandt’s “I’ll Be Here In The Morning”, now to be followed by their full length studio album titled “Death Wish Blues”.
“Death Wish Blues” has its backboned firmly cemented in Classic Blues, but also does a great job of bringing Samantha’s attitude in her vocals and guitar style to the forefront, while letting Dayton work seamlessly with what she has to offer.
Things open swiftly with the lively groove of “Deathwish”, featuring Fish’s unique vocals, followed by razor-sharp guitar leads and solos. This one quickly leaves a mark for new listeners. The spicy get-and-go rhythm in “Trauma” brings a nice soulful approach, the duet is on fire on this one. Things settle down some for the more traditional bluesy number of “No Apology”, where Samantha belts some colorful soulful vocal lines. Offering even more sultry vocal lines comes “Lover On The Side”, really enjoyed the trade-in vocals lines between Jesse and Samantha, followed by some string magic on the guitars.
Overall this collaboration is pretty sterned in its roots, it’s raw, different than your typical Blues number. I believe this is what makes the songs here work, is both artists’ unique approach to the Blues genre, and sprinkled in the spirit of progression and creating something fresh, they have both succeeded in that regard. The production is very well done, but not overly done where you miss the rawness of it all. Hats off to legendary Jon Spencer for its pristine production fingerprints. A top-notch Blues record to add to a long list of great albums this year already. While so many artists had been sitting on new music because of the pandemic, is refreshing to hear new works between two talented players done with such execution in such a short amount of time.
Written by: Shadow Editor
Ratings: 8/10
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