Black Wind Howlin

Description

Take cover: theres a storm coming. With its lyrical thunderbolts, lightning-flash fretwork and ground-shaking grooves, Black Wind Howlin is a record to blow your roof off and Samantha Fish is stood at the eye of the hurricane. Released on September 20th through Ruf Records, Black Wind Howlin flips a finger at the cliché of the difficult second album, firing off 12 classic tracks that chart Samanthas evolution as songwriter, gunslinger and lyricist. While lesser artists work to a template or settle into a pigeonhole, Samantha shifts her shape across the Black Wind Howlin tracklisting. She can be brutally rocking on cuts like the tourbus snapshot of Miles To Go (Twelve hours to Reno/ten hours til the next show), the swaggering Sucker Born (Vegas left me weary, LA bled me dry/skating on fumes as I crossed the Nevada line) and the venomous Go To Hell (Oh, this aint my first rodeo/You hit yourself a dead end/Your voodoo eyes, aint gonna cast a spell/So you can go to hell!). And yet, elsewhere, backed by the versatile production of Royal Southern Brotherhood guitarist and longtime collaborator Mike Zito, youll find Samantha shifting gears to the aching slide-guitar balladry of Over You (Echoing words, said Id never make it on my own) and the redemptive country strum Last September (Dont remember the curves of my face/Cant feel the warmth in my embrace/Well Im here to remind you). She might stop off for a gritty cover of Howlin Wolfs Whos Been Talkin, and co-wrote Go To Hell with Zito, but all other tracks are Samanthas self-penned originals, and its a mix to keep listeners on their toes. I wanted this record to have a modern rocking sound, she explains of the light-footed vibe. I also wanted it to have elements of Americana, country and roots. Therefore she had support from a first-call band that included Royal Southern Brotherhood rhythm section Yonrico Scott (drums) and Charlie Wooton (bass), back-up guitar and vocals from Zito, plus guest appearances from Johnny Sansone (harmonica), Bo Thomas (fiddle on Last September) and Paul Thorn (vocals on Go To Hell). So here it is. Harder, darker, bolder and better than even its revered predecessor (Runaway), this is the sound of an artist on the brink of the huge-time with both hands on the wheel.