Samantha Fish was six months into a typical touring year – a lineup of almost 300 shows – when the pandemic hit.
“And then, hard stop,” said the Kansas City-born singer, songwriter and guitarist.
“It was a jolt. I haven’t worked so little in 12 years,” she said. “I’ve always worked a lot, so to not work was interesting. I started channeling that energy into a record.”
She eventually did take some time for reflection, and one of the things she discovered was that she didn’t like the songs she was writing.
“I put them away and started over,” she said. She doesn’t write “happy songs” anyway, she said, but she still wanted tracks that would make her “feel good and empowered.”