Samantha Fish brings Paper Doll Live to The Fillmore Silver Spring

The Grammy-nominated blues-rock guitarist plays Silver Spring on Tuesday, Nov. 17, riding a live album cut from her fiercest record yet.

There are guitar players who make a room lean in, and there are guitar players who make it step back. Samantha Fish has spent the last two years doing the second thing on purpose, and on Tuesday, Nov. 17, she brings that volume to The Fillmore Silver Spring.

The basics: Samantha Fish plays The Fillmore Silver Spring on Tuesday, Nov. 17, with the show starting at 8 p.m. Tickets are through Ticketmaster, where the date is billed as part of the Paper Doll Live world tour. The Fillmore holds 2,000, a big room for a Tuesday, and a fair measure of where Fish stands now.

The record behind all this is *Paper Doll*, which came out in April 2025 on Rounder Records. Fish called in Bobby Harlow, the Detroit garage-rock producer from The Go, and the label pitched it as her fiercest album to date (Shore Fire Media). The bet paid off. *Paper Doll* earned a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Blues Album, and Blues Rock Review named it its No. 1 album of 2025. Songs like "I'm Done Runnin'" and "Can Ya Handle The Heat?" don't sound like a blues player politely nodding at rock. They sound like a rock record made by someone who knows exactly where the blues lives.

The album has kept growing. A digital deluxe edition added two new tracks, including a Neil Young cover (Keys and Chords). Early this year she put out "Rusty Razor," featuring Mick Collins, and took the Paper Doll tour across the UK in February and March with The Zac Schulze Gang along as special guests (My Global Mind).

Then came the live album. *Paper Doll Live*, Fish's first official live release, was recorded at the Bijou Theatre in Knoxville and released June 12 on Rounder (Rock Posers). Putting out a live record this soon after a studio album says something about how she sees these songs: they were written to be played loud in a room full of people, and the stage is where they finish.

These songs were written to be played loud in a room full of people.

This fall's run has already taken her up and down the West Coast, with Orange County on Oct. 28, two Los Angeles dates on Oct. 29 and 31, and San Diego on Nov. 1. From here she heads east: Queens and the Bronx on Nov. 12, Syracuse on Nov. 14, then Silver Spring three nights later.

A Tuesday show at 8 p.m. is the friendly kind. You can get to downtown Silver Spring after work, catch the full set and still be home at a reasonable hour. The Fillmore is a general-admission-style room built for this sort of night, with plenty of floor for people who came to watch hands on a fretboard.

If you've only heard Samantha Fish on record, this is the tour to fix that. *Paper Doll Live* exists because the songs hit harder in person. Go find out how much harder.

Sources: Samantha Fish at The Fillmore Silver Spring — JamBase (jambase.com); Tickets — Ticketmaster (ticketmaster.evyy.net); Samantha Fish announces fiercest album to date, Paper Doll — Shore Fire Media (shorefire.com); Samantha Fish announces new album Paper Doll — Blues Rock Review (bluesrockreview.com); Samantha Fish Paper Doll Live review — Blues Rock Review (bluesrockreview.com); Samantha Fish unveils digital deluxe edition of Paper Doll — Keys and Chords (keysandchords.com); Samantha Fish unleashes “Rusty Razor” & UK Paper Doll tour — My Global Mind (myglobalmind.com); Samantha Fish releases title track & video ‘Paper Doll Live’ — Rock Posers (rockposer.com); Samantha Fish Gears Up for Explosive Album Release — Blues Matters (bluesmatters.com)