The road to Samantha Fish’s Wild Heart Records winds along the Big Muddy through Baton Rouge, where young guitar players travel to learn from and experience the legacy left there by the likes of Buddy Guy, Kenny Neal, Tabby Thomas, Lightnin’ Slim and so many others who fueled that vibrant blues scene going back decades into the last century.

It was great to learn that The Trey Anastasio Trio, as listed on the schedule, was actually playing as a quartet, given that Ray Paczkowski had just returned to his keyboard the night before, after recovering from a health issue. That may have been Trey’s first real interaction with the crowd, there before the encore, where he played two solo songs with his acoustic, including a lovely “Waste,” before bringing his bandmates back for a third together. I did love how he phrased it, the news about Ray being better, genuinely thrilled to share “some good news in what seems like a world of bad news.”

Deadheads gathered under the sacred oaks of Harmony Park Music Garden on May 26-27, with a pre-party on May 25 featuring Leftover Salmon. The legendary bassist, Phil Lesh, was warmly welcomed by his fans and the accompanying 90-degree weather at Revival Music Festival 2018.

“We Rainbow Girls are normally at festivals because we are scheduled to play them,” said multi-instrumentalist Caitlin Gowdey, 27, “but High Sierra is the only festival I will always go to even if I have to pay for my ticket.”

Samantha Fish, a young and incredibly talented guitarist, visited Fayetteville, AR for a show recently. Grateful Web sat down with her to discuss her experience as a musician and her new album, Wild Heart.

GW Describe your music to someone who hasn’t listened to it before.

On a Friday night at 6 pm you won’t usually find folks in Fayetteville, AR packed into the back room of a bar. But there are special occasions for such shows; one of which happened June 12 at George’s Majestic Lounge. Punctual as ever, the older-than-usual but rambunctious audience stood waiting for Samantha Fish to grace the stage. The crowd was buzzing with the anticipation of the fantastic blues rock show at hand.

On July 10th, Ruf Records recording artist singer-guitarist Samantha Fish, will raise eyebrows with her third studio release, Wild Heart, produced by Luther Dickinson (The North Mississippi Allstars/Black Crowes). Having Samantha on guitars and Luther on various stringed instruments, they rounded out the lineup with Grammy Award-winning Brady Blade (Emmylou Harris/Bob Dylan) on drums.