A Wednesday night in Edinburgh and we are here at the Queens Hall to catch that blues siren Samantha Fish. First up, though, we have Wille and the Bandits who open up with a couple from their new album When the World Stood Still. They start with “Caught in the Middle”, a full on bouncy blues rocker of a track, followed by the smoother “Refuge” with its vocal hints of Chris Cornell, a fabulous start.
The boys “Keep it on the Down-Low” with some real dirty guitars and a funky blues feel, a tremendous track. The band “Still Go Marching In” now from 2013’s Grow album, a real slow burner, before a twin track attack from the Paths album: the blues cruiser “Judgement Day” flowing into the mellow “Four Million days”. It’s now time for some smooth rocking blues with “Good Stuff” before they end a great opening set with two from their Steal album. These are blistering rock number “1970”, with its dirty blues-laden swagger, and some intense slow opening chords before “Bad News” opens up with some more dirty ZZ Top style guitar. A tremendous way to end to their set which went down a storm with the crowd.
This was a great rockin’ blues-filled set from Wille and the Bandits, a band well worth checking out if you have not done so. I’ll definitely be catching them next year when they are back on tour at the Edinburgh Voodoo Rooms.
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2019 was the last time I caught up with Samantha Fish at the Voodoo Rooms. She is still promoting last year’s fantastic album Faster and even wearing the same outfit tonight as features on the album’s cover. The band strolls onto the stage with Samantha sporting her cigar box guitar for a blistering version of “Bulletproof” with a twin mike set up to alter her voice during the song. She is on fire tonight and the band means business for sure.
We have a pair next from the new album beginning with “Better Be Lonely”. This is a fun sultry funky blues tune with some lovey piano work from Matt, some fine bass lines from Ron and tidy drum beats from Sarah – and of course some intense vocals and solos from Samantha. It’s one of my favourite tracks tonight, and is followed by “Twisted Ambition” where we see Sarah get her drum groove on accompanies by some delicate guitar work from Samantha.
The sultry “Love Letters” just oozes sex appeal with those tones on the guitar and Samantha’s amazing voice. She tells us they are going really old school next with a cover of Barbara Lewis’ “Hello Stranger”. There’s a real jazzy feel to this song but with Samantha’s more punchy vocals. It was fabulous and we had some fun with her and the way she pronounced “Edinburgh”. We head back to 2015’s Wild Heart album with some 70s style blues in the form of “Highway’s Holding Me Now” before getting all funky with “Hypnotic”, her vocals being a touch higher on this one not unlike Prince.
The blues funk of “No Angels” is up next with some fun interplay amongst the band going on with everyone enjoying themselves, and some tasty slide guitar on the go. An interesting reworked cover up next with Neil Young’s “Don’t Let it Bring You Down”. This featured an acoustic start before going all electric for some fabulous solos. In all, a great version of a great song. Back to Wild Heart next for the fabulous “Bitch on the Run”, a real fast paced rocker. With the crowd clapping and dancing around me, this was definitely another favourite tonight.
The main set ends with the smooth “Dream Girl” followed by the old school blues of “Black Wind Howlin'”. What an end to a truly stunning set, but the band come back on for an encore of Bukka White’s “Shake ‘Em on Down”. They really went for it to end an absolutely red hot blistering night of blues rock n roll.
The whole band were fantastic and Samantha was just on fire tonight like a woman possessed. The crowd were tremendous, clapping, cheering, dancing and singing along to just a fabulous night of music with a woman really at the top of her game.
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Photos by Gary Cooper
