Singer-songwriter-guitar aces Samantha Fish and Jesse Dayton figured there might be a sweet spot somewhere between their sounds. Fish’s blues grooves have always had a heaping helping of roots and garage rock. Dayton’s outlaw country leans nicely into rockabilly and punk.
“I had this idea for a duet project floating around for a while,” Fish told the Herald. “But I didn’t know who the partner in the project would be. (Recently) I saw Jesse play and I said, ‘This guy is fearless. He’d be so into this.’”
So Fish pitched Dayton and they got to work. Or they tried to.
“We met up and we were supposed to have this incredibly productive weekend,” she said. “We were supposed to walk out of the weekend with several songs in hand. We walked out with nothing.”
It took a while for Fish and Dayton to work up to their 2023 debut album, “Death Wish Blues.” After the failed weekend, still determined there could be magic between them, the two knocked out a covers EP — “The Stardust Sessions” featured takes on old blues and alt country standards.
“‘The Stardust Sessions’ let us get comfortable,” Fish said ahead of the duo’s March 14 Wilbur gig. “We agreed to be completely honest with each other and not be afraid to send each other everything. The first song I remember that was an ‘ah ha’ moment for me was when I sent him the riff to ‘Death Wish.’”
Fish had a killer hook and great line — “Your kiss is like a death wish, baby.” Dayton built a whole narrative around it. The pair repeated the process over and over, trading riffs and hooks, lines and lyrics, until they had a whole album.
Back in the 2000s, Fish was a blues phenom, but she always had her ears open to other sounds. She came up jamming at Kansas City club Knuckleheads, where Dayton would often come through on tour. Despite the fact that Dayton began his career two decades earlier palling around with icons such as Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings, he found a kindred spirit in Fish.
To make a dirty, overdriven album, the duo needed one more like-minded soul. They found it in producer Jon Spencer of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.
“Jesse and I wanted the album to be rooted in the blues, but it also needed to be raw rock ‘n’ roll with a punk vibe to it,” Fish said. “Jon Spencer brought so much feeling to what we were trying to do… We really leaned on him to help us find a balanced approach between our styles, to help us get so much character out of our vocals to tell these stories.”
Like much of Fish’s past work (and Dayton’s and Spencer’s), “Death Wish Blues” is packed with barnburners: stomping guitars, growling vocals, honky tonk swagger. But Fish made sure to add some dynamism. One example, her ballad “No Apology,” has a Motown sweetness and the soul of Stax gem.
“Jon is like a ball of energy and his albums go 90 miles per hour,” Fish said. “But I’m always going to fight for a few good ballads. A lot of the record is seething. . .it’s rock ‘n’ roll. But ‘No Apology’ and ‘Know My Heart’ are something a little more tender, and you need those moments.”
You need all the Fish and Dayton moments. And thankfully, the pair fought through to realize they could write songs this catchy and compelling, blustery and intimate.
For tickets and details, visit samanthafish.com
