Samantha Fish releases first-ever live album, 'Paper Doll Live'

Raw, loud, unfiltered – Fish captures magic of stage

Press release

Grammy Award-nominated guitarist and songwriter Samantha Fish announced the release of her new live album, “Paper Doll Live,” and a new live single “Rusty Razor Live.”

The album is available on vinyl, CD and digital here. The new single is accompanied by a live performance video that can be viewed on YouTube here. To stream all the live video performances from the live album, click on the YouTube playlist here.

Fish’s first official live album was recorded at Knoxville’s historic Bijou Theatre. “Paper Doll Live” captures the electrifying stage presence that has made her one of the most compelling performers in modern blues and roots music. Capturing a band firing on all cylinders in front of a packed crowd, the record features soaring harmonies from Nashville gospel legends The McCrary Sisters and showcases the raw intensity that has made Fish one of the most celebrated live performers in contemporary roots music. 

Fish’s electrifying stage presence is on full display on “Paper Doll Live,” a collection that captures the acclaimed guitarist, singer and songwriter at her most powerful. As PopMatters said, the album finds Fish “doing what she does better than almost anybody currently wandering the American roots-and-blues highway: taking a stage and turning it into a weather system.”

Her reputation as a live performer is equally celebrated by Vintage Guitar, which called her “a triple-threat performer” and declared “you’d be hard-pressed to find a better, blues-based rock-and-roll show.” Throughout the set, Fish delivers what Offbeat described as “punchy songs, impassioned vocals, [and] tear-it-up guitar solos,” while Guitar Player praised Paper Doll Live as “arguably Fish’s most authentic concert souvenir.”

The two-time Grammy nominee has built her reputation the old-school way: onstage, with a live show critics have called “wild, raunchy … an absolute must-see” and praised for its “savage guitar work and commanding stage presence.” “Paper Doll Live” captures that energy in full force: raw, immediate, and impossible to fake.

“There’s a fire that comes across in live performance that doesn’t always translate in studio albums,” Fish said. “The stage lays all of that bare.”

Emerging from Kansas City’s rich blues lineage and shaped by influences ranging from Prince and Leonard Cohen to the legends of Mississippi Hill Country blues, Fish has spent her career transforming live performance into both proving ground and catharsis. From cold-calling bars as a teenager to headlining international festivals, she has forged a live show that balances grit, vulnerability, and explosive musicianship.

“If ‘Paper Doll’ was a declaration of artistic power, ‘Paper Doll Live’ is the sound of that power unleashed,” Fish said.

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Fish, a Kansas City Hall of Fame inductee and multiple Blues Music Award winner, has built a global following through relentless touring, fearless songwriting, and critically acclaimed releases including “Runaway,” “Black Wind Howlin,’ ” “Wild Heart,” “Chills & Fever,” “Kill or Be Kind,” “Faster,” the chart-topping collaboration “Death Wish Blues” with Jesse Dayton, and “Paper Doll.”

She has shared stages with artists including Slash and The Rolling Stones, and has appeared at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival.