Samantha Fish-LaVista-5.21.25

Samantha Fish at The Astro in LaVista, Nebraska on May 21, 2025.

Photos and Review by The Pit Magazine Contributor, Bob DeHart Photography

Any night that you get to see Samantha Fish, is a great night. She is currently on tour with Christone Kingfish Ingram. And I was super excited when I saw that they would be making a stop in LaVista on this trek. Samantha is on tour supporting her latest album, Paper Dolls. Which is, in my opinion, one of her best releases to date. So many great songs, you’ll have to check it out yourself if you haven’t yet. I picked up a physical copy of it at the merch booth, a signed CD for only $20. To good to pass up.

Her set itself, in a word, amazing. I love listening to Samantha Fish but you haven’t really heard her until you get to hear her live. Her voice is so dynamic and she is a natural performer. Samantha is loaded with lots of stage presence mixed in with a little bit of attitude. And make no mistake, she can play the guitar too. I love the hearing her play her blues with that attitude and power. The setlist wa a good mix of old and new playing some of the new songs like Paper Doll and Sweet Southern Sounds. I was happy to hear one of my favorites and an obvious crowd favorite, Bulletproof from the 2019 release Kill or Be Kind. It was a great crowd and they seemed to eat up everything that Samantha through out to them.

I am not a blues connoisseur by any stretch, my main listening genre being rock and roll and hard rock. But I love the guitar and Samantha Fish is an amazing guitar player and she definitely has led me to listen to not only her work but some other blues artist too. It’s great to see a mid-westerner make a mark on the musical landscape. I grew up just about an hour from Samantha’s hometown of Kansas City. Which also makes me feel a connection to her, when one of your own makes it, it is something special to witness. Check her out if you get the chance, blues fan or not, I bet you walk away becoming a Samantha Fish fan.