Samantha Fish Announces Her First Live Album With 'Sweet Southern Sounds' Video

04-11-2026

Blues rocker Samantha Fish have shared a music video for her new single "Sweet Southern Sounds", which comes from her very first live album, "Paper Doll Live", that is set to be released on June 12th.

"Truly, this is for the fans," Fish says of making her first official live record. "We've had numerous requests over the years. Paper Doll felt so great on stage - it felt like the perfect time to showcase the band and our live show."

Noble PR shared these details: Recorded at the historic Bijou Theatre in Knoxville, Tennessee, Paper Doll Live captures a band fully locked in and feeding off a packed crowd. The venue's natural warmth and acoustics created an ideal setting for the recording, elevated even further by the addition of Nashville gospel legends The McCrary Sisters, whose soaring harmonies bring added depth and emotion to the performance.

"Their voices lifted every song," Fish says. "I love beautiful backing vocals - they pack an emotional punch. I've been a fan of them for years, so that was really special for me."

Fans travelled from across the country to attend the recording, creating an atmosphere of anticipation and celebration inside the theatre.

"Our fans aren't afraid to travel," Fish says. "When we announced the show, people got excited. I think that build-up always helps make a better show."

The result is a performance that feels both ferocious and communal - a moment where the band, the songs, and the audience meet in real time. While the studio album Paper Doll marked a breakthrough in Fish's artistic confidence, the live setting strips away polish and leaves only instinct.

"There's a fire that comes across in live performance that doesn't always translate in studio albums," Fish says. "The stage lays all of that bare."

Songs evolve and expand in the live environment. Outros stretch. Studio fade-outs become powerful climaxes. Tracks like "Lose You" build with relentless momentum, while "Sweet Southern Sounds" allows Fish to lean into her hypnotic North Mississippi-inspired guitar phrasing. The title track "Paper Doll" lands as a defiant anthem night after night, igniting crowds with its refusal to conform.

And when the band launches into a blistering cover of MC5's "Kick Out the Jams," the room detonates.

For Fish, the difference between studio and stage is elemental.

"The studio is where you build and create your sound," she says. "The stage is where you execute all of that. Having a crowd takes you out of your head and gives you something to play off."

Emerging from Kansas City's blues lineage and shaped by influences ranging from Prince and Leonard Cohen to the legends of Mississippi Hill Country blues, Fish has long treated performance as her proving ground. From cold-calling bars as a teenager to headlining international festivals, she has developed a live show that balances catharsis and control, boldness and vulnerability.

With Paper Doll Live, she isn't reinventing herself - she's documenting the power of what she and her band do every night.

"I just wanted to capture what we do every night," Fish says. "It wasn't about chasing something new. It was about capturing the thing that has connected so deeply over the years."

If Paper Doll was a declaration of artistic power, Paper Doll Live is the sound of that power unleashed - immediate, unfiltered, and impossible to ignore.