How come girl singers make more of an effort? Samantha Fish, wearing what looks like black leather and a custom-made jacket, walks onto the York Barbican stage in yellow stilettos. Her platinum blonde hair is curled, a little like Marilyn Monroe. She looks fantastic. Meanwhile, her buddies, typical blokes, are dressed a bit like… blokes.

Review by Miles Salter

Fish is a singer, songwriter and (excellent) guitar player with a penchant for souped up blues. There are nods to the swamps of Louisiana – Fish lives in New Orleans and Jesse Dayton is based in Texas. There is a tinge of country to their songs, and in their brief acoustic set, they play a song by Townes Van Zandt. The guitar stunt work here nods to influences such as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Fabulous Thunderbirds, Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynrd, Gary Clark Jr and others. There’s also a touch of indie rock – something akin to The White Stripes, maybe, or The Black Keys, providing a roughed up edge on some numbers. The grit did the set no harm at all – it indicated authenticity, although that may be an illusion.

It’s a Tuesday night and the audience are sat down. Something tells me that Samantha Fish and Jesse Dayton would prefer it if the audience were on their feet. This is the first seated gig the pair have played on this tour, and the audience love it. However, they’re not as demented or rowdy, perhaps, as the standing audiences. They’re promoting a new album called Death Wish Blues, and the set features quite a few songs from the new album. 

It’s a good show. You can see that Fish and Dayton respect each other – both are excellent guitar players, both can write songs and both can sing. They’re backed by a fantastic band – a bass player, a drummer and a keyboard player. 

For this reviewer, the best moments were the quieter, more soulful ones. One of these comes late in the set with a wonderful cover of I Put A Spell On You, Jay Hawkins’ tune, made famous by Nina Simone. Fish has a wonderful blues-soul voice, and when she lets rip it is full of power and emotion, but something (the band or the sound mix?) drowns her out half the time, and we can’t hear her at her best.

There’s also a lot of sound and fury here. Gary Moore said that the best advice he ever had was from Buddy Guy, who told the Irish legend to play half the time. Music works best with contrast. And the best bits of this gig with Fish and Dayton were the ones of strong contrast. When they turned it up and blazed away on the guitars, it was energising, but only half as powerful.