Samantha Fish Kill or Be Kind

Genre-bending guitarist, singer, and songwriter Samantha Fish offers up the edgy roots music album Kill Or Be Kind. Her debut for Rounder Records was recorded at Royal Studios in Memphis, produced by three-time Grammy winner Scott Billington and mixed by two-time Grammy winner Steve Reynolds. Boasting 11 original songs ranging from the electric cigar box stomp of "Bulletproof" to the sweet Memphis R&B of "Trying Not To Fall in Love With You," the album is sure to establish Fish as a potent force in roots music.

The Kansas City-born-and-bred musician flirts with tradition but pushes genre boundaries to create a sound that's distinctly her own: "She Don't Live Here Anymore," co-written by Parker Millsap, features a Memphis soul underpinning with a sustained vibrato guitar sound that edges toward country. "Love Your Lies" persuasively straddles punk, rockabilly, and soul; while "You Got It Bad (Better Than You Ever Had)" is a classic blues rocker, thick with layered guitars and a cigar box solo. She shows off her range with the sweetly wistful "Dream Girl" and the cathartic, blues-saturated "Farewell My Fair Weather."

Having completed an album that she believes in so strongly – "This is me coming through, my personality," she says – Fish is eager to bring it to the world. "I got the moon in the back of my mind, and I want to shoot for it!" she declares. "I want to reach over genre lines and get out to as many people as possible. This album is so broad – and it's all me. So I'm just hoping it catches people and appeals to them."