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Samantha Fish with Jonathon Long

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Beginning October 12, 2021- Infinity Hall (both Hartford and Norfolk music venues) will require all patrons to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination, or a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within 72 hours of the event. Acceptable proof of full vaccination includes a CDC vaccination card (physical card, clear photograph, or photocopy). This requirement is in addition to any local mask mandates. Any updates to the COVID-19 protocols will be posted here and communicated appropriately.

Please Note: In Norfolk, this policy change affects admittance into the venue only, the restaurant will continue to follow state and local protocols. Click Here For More Information.

Anyone who has ever heard Fish’s previous albums knows that she has earned a place in the top rank of contemporary blues guitarists and that her voice can wring the soul out of a ballad and belt out a rocker with roof-shaking force. And, rest reassured, those virtues are fully in evidence on Kill or Be Kind, her latest album. But each of the songs on the album does far more than simply provide a setting for Fish’s pyrotechnics. They tell captivating stories, set up by verses that deftly set the scene, choruses that lift with real feeling, and hooks that later rise up in your thoughts, even when you’re not aware that you’re thinking of music at all. It’s the kind of songwriting that emerges when raw talent is leavened by experience and aspiration, and when a committed artist genuinely has something to say. Those qualities make Kill or Be Kind a genuine artistic breakthrough for Fish.

“I think I’ve grown as a performer and as a player,” she explains. “I’ve become more respectful of the melody. You can go up and down the fret board and up and down your vocal register, but that’s not going to be as powerful as conveying a simple melody that people can really connect to and sing themselves.” To help bring those elements to her music, Fish sought out high-quality songwriting collaborators – the likes of Jim McCormick (who has worked with Fish before and also written for Luke Bryan and Keith Urban); Kate Pearlman (who has worked with Kelly Clarkson); Patrick Sweeney; Parker Millsap; and Eric McFadden. The result is an album on which each song is distinct, but the complete work hangs together as a coherent, entirely satisfying statement. “When you get to this point in your life as an artist,” Fish says, “it’s good to work with others, because it makes you stretch. I think you hear a lot of that nuance on the record, songs that have a pop sensibility to them, hooks that really pull you in.”

Samantha Fish

Connect with this artist:

www.samanthafish.com

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Artist Bio

The first-ever collaborative album from Samantha Fish and Jesse Dayton, Death Wish Blues is a body of work born from a shared passion for pushing the limits of blues music. As one of the most dynamic forces in the blues world today, Fish has made her name as a multi-award-winning festival headliner who captivates crowds with her explosive yet elegant guitar work, delivering an unbridled form of blues-rock that defies all genre boundaries. Dayton, meanwhile, boasts an extraordinary background that includes recording with the likes of Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings, touring as a guitarist for seminal punk band X, working with Rob Zombie on the soundtracks for his iconic horror films, and releasing a series of acclaimed solo albums. Produced by the legendary Jon Spencer of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Death Wish Blues ultimately melds their eclectic sensibilities into a batch of songs both emotionally potent and wildly combustible.

 

As Fish reveals, the making of Death Wish Blues marked the culmination of a musical connection forged in her hometown of Kansas City over a decade ago. “It was always a big deal when Jesse came through town to a play a show—we first met when I was 20, and I kept up with him through the years,” Fish says of the Beaumont, Texas-bred musician. “I’d been wanting to do a collaborative project for a while and went to see Jesse perform in New Orleans, and right away I knew he was the guy. We got together and had this vision of making something of an alt-blues record, but it turned out to be so much more exciting and layered than I ever imagined.” 

 

The follow-up to Fish and Dayton’s 2022 EP Stardust Sessions—a three-song effort featuring covers of classic tracks like Townes Van Zandt’s “I’ll Be Here In The Morning”—Death Wish Blues took shape at Applehead Recording & Production in Woodstock, a studio situated on a 17-acre farm once home to The Band’s Rick Danko. Over the course of 10 frenetic days, the two musicians joined forces with bassist Kendall Wind, keyboardist Mickey Finn, and drummer Aaron Johnston, cutting most of the album live and unleashing a bold collision of blues, soul, punk, funk, and fantastically greasy rock-and-roll. With Fish and Dayton sharing vocal and guitar duties, the sonic power of each track is exponentially magnified by Spencer’s production work, endlessly tapping into the rule-breaking ingenuity that’s made him a cult hero. “Jon’s indie-rock royalty and he’s always been ahead of the game as far as moving the blues forward,” says Dayton. “For this album we wanted to keep everything blues-based, with a lot of inspiration from people like Albert King and Magic Sam on the lead-guitar parts, but we also wanted to have fun with that and take it somewhere new and different and way outside our wheelhouse.” 

 

One of the first songs that Fish and Dayton wrote together, the album-opening “Death Wish” 
immediately established the free-flowing nature of their collaboration. “Samantha sent me that 
melody and I went into my writing room and started coming up with some lyrics inspired by all 
these true-crime documentaries I’d been watching,” Dayton recalls. “It turned into a song about men taking advantage of women, and I knew that Samantha could really chew on those lyrics and sing them with a lot of attitude.” Anchored by a hot-tempered vocal performance from Fish, the result is a prime introduction to Death Wish Blues’ incendiary sound, at turns gritty, exhilarating, and indelibly hypnotic. Later, on “Riders,” Fish and Dayton offer up a ferociously groove-heavy track built on their fiery vocal back-and-forth, reaching a majestic frenzy in the song’s final moments. “‘Riders’ is about being musicians and troubadours and having one-night stands with whatever city you happen to be in,” says Fish. “Every city is personified as a love interest or partner, and in the end you just move on to whatever adventure is coming up next.”

 

Although Death Wish Blues serves up plenty of swagger and bravado, much of the album embodies a powerfully raw sensitivity. “As we were writing some of the love songs you hear on the record, I really had to open up my heart to Samantha to get to the core of what we wanted to express,” says Dayton. “It was good for me to allow myself to be that vulnerable, and I don’t know if it’s something I would’ve been able to do when I was younger.” On “Trauma,” Fish and Dayton spin a strangely thrilling portrait of heartbreak, taking on a furious momentum as Dayton lays his pain and frustration exquisitely bare. Building a heady tension between its slow-burning verses and hard[1]hitting chorus, “Settle for Less” unfolds as an achingly moving meditation on self-worth.

“The sentiment of that song is that if you settle for anything short of what you deserve, that’s exactly what you’re going to get,” says Fish, who co-wrote the track with her frequent collaborator Jim McCormick (Tim McGraw, Trisha Yearwood). And on “No Apology,” Death Wish Blues slips into a moment of heavy-hearted outpouring, with Fish’s graceful yet gut-punching vocals riding the line between tender longing and unapologetic self-possession. “‘No Apology’ is about fighting with the 
one you love and wanting to push through and make everything okay again,” says Fish. “It’s a love song but sort of twisted, because that’s the only kind of love song I write.”

Another irresistibly soulful track, “You Know My Heart” closes out Death Wish Blues with a spellbinding duet illuminating the pure magic of their musical chemistry. “That’s the first song that Jesse and I finished together,” Fish points out. “He sent it to me to one morning and told me he’d woken up the night before with that melody in his head, and we started singing it together and fleshing out the verses. It turned into a song about being far from your loved one and maybe things aren’t going the way you want, but you know they’ll love you through your worst and see your better intentions through it all. I thought that was a really beautiful way to end the record.” 

 

Throughout Death Wish Blues, Fish and Dayton let their more lighthearted side shine on tracks like “Supadupabad,” a gloriously carefree piece of blues-funk complete with references to sipping Courvoisier from crystal cups. “That song was way out of my comfort zone, but it felt good to get sort of silly and just have fun with it,” says Fish. “It’s like a two-minute party, and I don’t think I could’ve ever come up with something like that on my own.” Thanks in part to Spencer’s direction, the recording sessions for Death Wish Blues also included such unexpected moments as building the off-kilter beat of “Dangerous People” by banging on beer cans gathered from the backyard. “What I loved about working with Jon is that we brought in a bunch of songs that we’d demoed on acoustic guitar, and he’d go in and find a way to add all these unique parts that I never would’ve envisioned,” says Fish. “Sometimes it was jarring at first, but everything ended up fitting so perfectly.” Looking back on the album-making process, Fish also notes that Spencer helped to uncover certain facets of her voice that she’d never explored before. “Jon records vocals with character; it’s about attitude rather than perfection,” she says. “I learned a lot about taking on the character of the song, and about singing with different inflections to really get the emotion across.” 

For both Fish and Dayton, the making of Death Wish Blues helped fulfill their longtime mission of opening up the blues genre to entirely new audiences. “I’ve played all kinds of music in my life, punk and country and Americana and so much else, and for me this was another wonderful rabbit hole to fall down,” says Dayton. “I love that it’s coming at a moment when we’re starting to see the resurgence of rock guitar for the first time in a long time, and I think it’s going to turn a lot of people on to a kind of music they’ve never experienced before.” Fish adds: “The main reason why I make music has always been the connection it creates with others. It’s a way to communicate with the world around me, to tell stories that people can then take and apply to their own lives and maybe feel more understood. We had such a fun time making this album, and I hope that it leaves everyone with the same feeling of joy that we all felt in the studio.

Jonathon Long

Connect with this artist:

jonathonlongmusic.com

Jonathon Long hails from Baton Rouge and at 29 years old, he has established himself regionally in an area rich with blues legacy tracing to Buddy Guy, Kenny Neal, Tabby Thomas, Lightnin’ Slim and others. Yet, Long doesn’t try to emulate any one of them.

It was at 14 years old Jonathon’s passion for the music is what convinced his parents to take a leap of faith when their 14-year-old son approached them with his plans. The Longs signed over partial custody of their son to Blues Musician Henry Turner, allowing him to play out-of-state gigs where the presence of a legal guardian was required. A working musician before he was old enough to hold a learner’s permit, Long has been growing his fan base non-stop. Playing festivals the world over, including his yearly spot at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival has honed his skills to a razor’s edge.

That experience kicked off Long’s artistic career. After touring with Turner, 16-year-old Long played the fraternity party circuit with Motown cover band 2 Hipnotic, before getting his chance to play on a larger stage as a guitarist for New Orleans blues legend Luther Kent.

Kent gave Long his first taste of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival stage, and helped him blossom into the artist he is today. In 2011, Long was named Guitar Center’s “King of the Blues” then hit the road on his own opening shows for Tab Benoit, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, and others. It wasn’t until a 13 date run opening for BB King when BB told Jonathon "You can really play that guitar boy; I stole some of your licks."

“His evolution from gospel to blues to the whole spectrum of Southern-inspired music is a delight to experience.” – OffBeat Magazine

“He is the ringmaster, trapeze artist and human cannonball of a live blues-rock circus” --Country Roads Magazine

Jonathon has released two CDs to the critics delight on Louisiana Red Hot Records under the name Jonathon “Boogie” Long. He has performed many festivals and venues around the world including New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, Grolsch Blues Festival, Telluride Blues and Brews, and on the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise. Jonathon’s blues continues to evolve without any barrios and without any restraints. His style, tone, and the way he delivers the song lyrically with the dynamics and soul that make him and his guitar a great story teller and an exciting Artist.

In January 2018 Jonathon amerced himself in songwriting for his new recording which was produced by Samantha Fish and released on Fish’s Wild Heart Records label.

“All that I know how to do is take a pen and a sheet of paper or two, write a few words about peace and love, Louisiana and the heavens above; Bury me when I am gone, with my guitar and some cheap cologne, all that’s left is a pile of bones, remember me through the words of my song.”
Jonathon Long ‘Bury Me’

Recorded in post-Mardi Gras New Orleans earlier this year at NOLA Recording Studios, Jonathon Long’s self-titled release produced by 2018 Contemporary Female Blues Artist of the Year Samantha Fish, is an extra-ordinary collection of 11 songs, all written by Jonathon save for ‘The River’, written by Detroit’s Kenny Tudrick, a Samantha Fish cohort and drummer for the Detroit Cobras. Long is joined on the record by bandmates Chris Roberts on bass and Jullian Civello on drums, giving it a ‘live in the studio’ sonic signature. The ten Jonathon-penned tunes are timely, personal, outright spiritual and infused with an intentional, infectious spirit and soul. The CD was released on September 7, 2018.

Alternating between near-despair and boundless hope, the songs evoke that delicate balance of drawing you in and fixating you with provocative lyrics, familiar yet fresh riffs and clean, tight arrangements that shine on record and powerfully resound live. Each track gets its own special guitar treatment, from spare and simple acoustic rhythms and fills to in- your-face ‘straight into the board’ sonics, arranged and performed with the dues-paid passion and prowess Jonathon brings to his craft.

Says Jonathon: “You can’t be hesitant, you have to own it; everything that I do is to stress the positive, to connect with people in a positive way; I try to be an artist who doesn’t follow the textbook rules on being an artist, by not trying to write songs that appeal to the masses; I’m just trying to tell the stories and the truths as I see them and how I believe.” The songs on ‘Jonathon Long’ range from straight ahead blues, to stories of heartbreak, yearning, hope and redemption, to a drinking song. His own spirituality is front and center, but in a positive, non-preachy manner.

“Everyone has their own image of what a perfect world should be; my goal is not to persuade what to believe, or convert anyone, but to have people hear and realize you can do what you want, have fun, and find ways to peaceably coexist with the other people in this world. We are never about negative anything. We want to show up, bring on the heat, and have it all come together through the music,” he tells. And that brings us to Boogie. He explains “I’m not just a boogie-woogie blues artist. There was a time I played a lot of shuffles, but now I’m in a different blues genre. I’ve been Boogie since two years old, and now it’s time to be just Jonathon Long,”

Hear and see for yourself. A fond farewell to Boogie, and a hello and welcome to ‘Jonathon Long’.

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