Samantha Fish “Paper Doll” 2025. Rounder Records, signed & on clear smoky vinyl. We picked up the hard rocking (and country twinged) blues musician’s latest LP this past Friday night at Turner Hall. While she was the headliner, we were mostly there for Jon Spencer, who along with R.L. Burnside’s grandson, Cedric Burnside, performed the first night of their Shake ‘Em on Down tour. From Kansas City, Missouri, Fish has been writing, recording and performing for about 15 years; I’m not even sure what number of LP release Paper Dolls is as she has a pretty impressive discography which includes collaborations as well as solo live and recorded records. Like her performance, Paper Dolls is dynamic with a balanced mix of hard rock, blues and country (so occasionally veering into rockabilly territory). Up til Friday evening I wasn’t really aware of her so I have no idea which tracks she performed at the show (she did introduce some as from the LP but I didn’t know the tracks enough for them to register). An incredibly talented guitar player, her work shines on all of the tracks but my favorites are the real rockers: the opener “I’m Done Runnin’,” “Lose You” with some really excellent country slide, the spacey/stoner bluesy “Fortune Teller,” the hard rocking “Rusty Razor” that features Mick Collins (The Gories, The Dirtbombs) on vocals and the title track “Paper Doll” which I actually do remember her playing – it’s a total stomper: epic, anthemic and awesome.