Samantha Fish

Attention all blues fans: Samantha Fish will be performing LIVE on the Indoor Stage at Salvage Station on Sunday, January 29th, 2023! Doors open at 7PM and the music starts at 8PM. This is a General Admission, 18+ show (no exceptions). FREE PARKING!

Root Down will be serving their delicious twist on Southern Soul food and we’ll have a few rotating food trucks on-site as well! There will also be MULTIPLE full bars open for you to enjoy! 

CDC guidelines + band requirements + our venue policies are subject to change daily, so please keep your eyes on https://salvagestation.com/covid-policy/ for updates. We do not issue refunds based on our Covid-19 policies and reserve the right to change them at any time.

Check out our FAQ page here to learn about large event parking options, what you can and cannot bring inside the venue, and MORE!

Listen to Samantha Fish:

About Samantha Fish:

Over the course of her career as an award-winning artist, singer/songwriter/guitarist
Samantha Fish has brought extraordinary power to her self-expression, capturing her
inner world in combustible riffs, visceral rhythms, and spine-tingling vocal work. On her
new album Faster, she joins forces with superproducer Martin Kierszenbaum (Lady
Gaga, Sting) and imbues even more intensity into her electrifying brand of blues/rock-
and-roll. With Fish accompanied by legendary drummer Josh Freese (Guns N’ Roses,
Nine Inch Nails, The Replacements) and bassist Diego Navaira of The Last Bandoleros,
the result is a singular body of work both irresistibly galvanizing and emotionally raw.
The follow-up to 2019’s Kill or Be Kind (Fish’s Rounder Records debut), Faster came to
life at the famed Village Studios in Los Angeles, where she and Kierszenbaum
uncovered new possibilities in her captivating sound. “Kansas City played a major part
in bringing us together: I was born and raised in KC and Martin has some familial ties.
Shortly after being introduced last year, we had a conversation about making an album,”
she recalls. “His track record was perfect for what I wanted to do with this album, which
was to expand into different genres while retaining the roots I’d built in the blues world.”
Revealing her affinity for North Mississippi blues heroes like R.L. Burnside and wildly
inventive iconoclasts like Prince, the album ultimately embodies an unbridled energy
true to its emotional core. “The whole record has a theme of taking charge and taking
the reins, in a relationship or in life in general,” says Fish. “I really thought that after
2020 I’d end up with a really dismal, bleak album, but instead, we came up with
something that’s fun and sexy and so empowering.”

Faster opens on its spellbinding title track, a fiercely stomping number whose vocal
hook states her intentions to “make your heart beat faster.” Immediately making good
on that promise, Fish next unleashes the restless urgency of “All Ice No Whiskey,” a
pop-perfect powerhouse she considers something of a dare. “‘All Ice No Whiskey’ is a
way of telling someone they don’t have any of that substance I’m looking for—sort of
like, ‘Come back when you’ve got something interesting for me,’” Fish says. That defiant
spirit also infuses “Better Be Lonely,” a fantastically loose and freewheeling track graced
with a frenetic guitar solo. “That song’s about putting someone on ice, where you’re
telling them: ‘I don’t want you right now, but when I am ready to have you, you better be
there,” says Fish. Another bold statement of self-possession, “Twisted Ambition” brings
mercurial rhythms and jagged guitar work to Fish’s refusal to let others define her. “It’s
about flipping the roles of power—taking control and confronting a world that tries to put
you in your place,” she notes.

While Faster never fails to showcase the gritty vitality of Fish’s musicianship, much of
the album journeys into elegantly eclectic sonic terrain. One of Faster’s most vulnerable
moments, “Crowd Control” unfolds in delicate beats and shimmering keyboard tones,
forming a dreamy backdrop to Fish’s self-reflection. “It’s about confronting your demons
– separating the version of yourself that you portray to the world from who you actually
are. At its core, it’s about expressing vulnerability,” Fish explains. “When I wrote it, it felt

like a true rootsy, Americana song. Martin added keys and modern synth textures that
really brought it back around to this plaintive mood.” Featuring a guest spot from
rapper/singer/songwriter Tech N9ne, “Loud” drifts from doo-wop reverie to guitar-fueled
frenzy, riding that tension to glorious effect. “Tech N9ne is by far one of the biggest
artists to come out of KC, and one of the biggest self-made artists in the world,” says
Fish. “He was perfect for ‘Loud,’ which is a song about speaking your truth as loud as
you can. It’s about saying to the person you’re with: ‘I want you, but I want you ugliness
and all. So don’t ever be afraid to speak your mind and speak your heart.’” And on
“Hypnotic,” Fish lays down a mesmerizing piece of R&B-pop, telegraphing unfettered
desire in her seductive vocal delivery and lushly textured grooves. “‘Hypnotic’ is about
putting somebody under a spell,” she says. “There’ve been times in my life when I
haven’t felt all that in control in a relationship, and this song was my chance to become
that person.”

For the final track to Faster, Fish selected the album’s most tender song, a gorgeously
stark and slow-burning ballad called “All the Words.” “It’s about letting a relationship go
because that’s what’s best for everyone, even though it’s a horribly painful experience,”
says Fish. “When we recorded it, it was just me on guitar, Diego on bass, Martin playing
the grand piano. It’s a song I hold very close, and it felt right to make it as raw as
possible.”

Throughout Faster, Fish threads her songwriting with the kind of nuanced storytelling
and ultravivid detail that comes from carefully honing her craft. “Because we usually tour
so much, most of my albums have been written in hotels between shows,” she says.
“This was the first time I’ve ever had the opportunity to just sit in one place, and pour
everything that was happening around me into songs.” Growing up in Missouri, Fish first
found her love of songwriting in her late teens, mining inspiration from the likes of Tom
Waits and Leonard Cohen. Having taken up guitar at age 15, she soon began seeking
out gigs by cold-calling countless local bars. “I used to open the phone book and call up
every place in Kansas City, even if they didn’t have live shows,” she remembers. “I had
maybe a three percent success rate, but eventually I started filling up my calendar—if
you put on a good enough show, word of mouth gets around.” Over the years, Fish has
maintained her reputation as a phenomenal live act and repeatedly turned out critically
acclaimed albums, in addition to earning an ever-growing number of accolades.
For Fish, one of the greatest joys of making music is the powerful exchange of energy
at her incendiary live shows. “I fell in love with music from going to shows, and I know
how cathartic it can be. It heals your heart,” she says. “Anytime I play live, I just want to
want to make people forget about everything else in the world and feel that same joy
that I feel on stage.” And in the process of creating Faster, Fish experienced a similar
exhilaration—a sustained head rush that’s entirely palpable in every track on the album.
“There’s such a transformation that can happen in the studio when you really own that
freedom to be creative,” she says. “I feel so charged up in those moments, like I can be
whoever I want to be. It’s just me and these incredible musicians trying to make a piece
of art that speaks for itself and contributes something new to the world. It’s never hard
to feel inspired or empowered when that’s the mission.”

About Eric Johanson:

Eric Johanson is a multiple Top 10 Billboard-charting guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter
whose repertoire includes progressive Americana, blues-based roots rock, New Orleans
funk, and more. His four most recent solo releases – Live at DBA: New Orleans Bootleg,
Covered Tracks: Vol. 1, Covered Tracks: Vol. 2, and Below Sea Level – all reached top-ten
positions on the Billboard blues charts. As a collaborator, his most notable recent work is as
a guitarist on Big Chief Monk Boudreaux’s Grammy-nominated 2021 album, Bloodstains &
Teardrops.

As a touring performer, Johanson’s solo festival appearances include the Legendary Rhythm
& Blues Cruise, Las Vegas Big Blues Bender, and Voice of the Wetlands. He and his band
have appeared in more than 100 cities across the United States, including Albuquerque,
Baltimore, Boston, Bozeman, Charlotte, Denver, Houston, Madison, Memphis, New York,
Phoenix, San Francisco, St. Louis, and Tampa. Johanson has performed with Cyril Neville,
Anders Osborne, the Neville Brothers, Terrance Simien, JJ Grey, Eric Lindell, and others on
international stages and festivals including the Chicago Blues Festival, Edmonton Blues
Festival, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Byron Bay Bluesfest (Australia), Airbag
Festival (Belgium), and more.

A self-taught child prodigy, Johanson grew up in Alexandria, Louisiana, where he was gifted
his first guitar at age five. By his pre-teen years, his love of the blues performed by his family
members and played in his childhood home merged with his love for hard rock records by
Metallica, Megadeth, and White Zombie. Throughout his teenage years, he performed
frequently with older blues musicians, generating for himself considerable acclaim as a
budding regional star. What would prove to become a lifelong exploration of his varied
musical interests began in earnest after moving to New Orleans, where he embraced
progressive rock and beat-making while simultaneously developing his blues voice. After
graduating from the University of New Orleans, Johanson spent several years in New
Zealand before being called back to his adopted hometown and the improvisational,
extemporaneous nature of roots music in New Orleans.

Johanson has since established himself as an in-demand guitarist and guest performer for
some of the most prolific names in New Orleans’ diverse roots music scene, including the
Grammy-winning stars Cyril Neville, Anderse Osborne, and Neville Brothers. In 2017, blues
rock icon Tab Benoit took notice and signed Johanson to his Whiskey Bayou Records label.
That same year, Johanson released his Benoit-produced debut solo album, Burn It Down,
which led to two years of national touring with Benoit.

2019 saw the Nola Blue Records release of a duet album with singer-songwriter Tiffany
Pollack, Blues In My Blood, as well as Johanson’s appearance at an all-star jam concert with
the North Mississippi Allstars’s Luther Dickinson during the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage
Festival. In 2020, Johanson signed with Nola Blue Records and released Below Sea Level,
which was recorded at Zebra Ranch and includes contributions from Cody Dickinson (North
Mississippi Allstars) on drums, Terrence Grayson (Victor Wainwright) on bass, and Ray
Jacildo (JD McPherson) on B3 organ. The album features 12 original songs penned by
Johanson, and was mixed by Dan Auerbach’s head engineer at Easy Eye Sound in Nashville,
M. Allen Parker.

Johanson’s fan base grew extensively during the pandemic and ensuing shutdown of live
music, due to his successful acoustic livestreams, during which he mixed original songs with
covers of artists representing a variety of genres. Popular demand led to the release of
Covered Tracks, volumes one and two, in the spring of 2021. In early 2022, Johanson released
Live at DBA: New Orleans Bootleg, his first live album and a double-disc raw and unfiltered
snapshot of his live band in action.