Samantha Fish Paper Doll World Tour Queen's Hall Edinburgh 6th March 2026 Review
Samantha Fish & Zac Schulze photographs by Ian Potter
Samantha Fish Paper Doll World Tour stopped off at the Queen's Hall Edinburgh tonight .The tour takes its name from Samantha Fish's album "Paper Doll” which was released in April 2025.
I have to admit, early in this review, for many reasons to being a fan of Samantha Fish and her music as she is someone who obviously uses many contemporary internet channels and music sites to promote her work, but also has and continues to do it the old way, the hard way, playing music live to venues large and small. Samantha Fish may be a Grammy nominated artist, but she has built her reputation as a guitarist and a performer on the buzz of her live shows, and still today there is that seemingly relentless work ethic and tour schedule.
Starting tonight’s set with "Paper Doll", the title track from the latest album, set this show out from the very start as it continued for the rest of the evening, Samantha Fish and the band here to put on the best show they could for this audience, oh and for her also to take obvious pleasure in announcing that she had sold out this venue (which holds 900 plus people).
Samantha Fish is busy touring and if anyone reading this review plans to go to other shows, then I am not going to give this new set list away to you, just let that be a surprise on the night. I am giving nothing away though by saying that some of the tracks on the new album are taking Samantha Fish into a wider spectrum of music, and "Dreamgirl" was a good example of that tonight. Samantha Fish has built her reputation to date as a blues/rock guitarist, but her vocals and her technical abilities as a guitarist are far beyond that narrow definition of music and it is going to be interesting in the coming years to find out just how much this multi-talented artist is really capable of.
There may have been a lot of new songs on tonight’s set list, but there was still room for some of the Samantha Fish crowd pleasers, including of course "Bulletproof" Not forgetting of course, a much applauded by this audience cover of R L Burnside's "Poor Mattie”.
There seemed to be more than a technical gremlin or two in the works a few times tonight, but Samantha Fish just let the people around her do their job while she did hers, never stopping the flow of this show. That is always the mark of a true professional performer.
Opening this show tonight, as they did last time Samantha Fish was in Edinburgh, were The Zac Schulze Gang. This trio, formed in Gillingham in 2020, are attracting a lot of attention from many people in the music industry at the moment, and they deserve it. This was another high energy set from Zac and the band, and they do so much remind me of many 1970s punk bands that I saw back in the day. They are certainly that jolt to the system that music needs at the moment. Their cover of "Walkin' The Dog" was, as with most of their songs, relentless high energy, and utterly unique. One day though, this band might just slow down, breathe a little. We know they can do it fast, but can they do it slow?
Review by Tom King (c) 2026
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com.
I have to admit, early in this review, for many reasons to being a fan of Samantha Fish and her music as she is someone who obviously uses many contemporary internet channels and music sites to promote her work, but also has and continues to do it the old way, the hard way, playing music live to venues large and small. Samantha Fish may be a Grammy nominated artist, but she has built her reputation as a guitarist and a performer on the buzz of her live shows, and still today there is that seemingly relentless work ethic and tour schedule.
Starting tonight’s set with "Paper Doll", the title track from the latest album, set this show out from the very start as it continued for the rest of the evening, Samantha Fish and the band here to put on the best show they could for this audience, oh and for her also to take obvious pleasure in announcing that she had sold out this venue (which holds 900 plus people).
Samantha Fish is busy touring and if anyone reading this review plans to go to other shows, then I am not going to give this new set list away to you, just let that be a surprise on the night. I am giving nothing away though by saying that some of the tracks on the new album are taking Samantha Fish into a wider spectrum of music, and "Dreamgirl" was a good example of that tonight. Samantha Fish has built her reputation to date as a blues/rock guitarist, but her vocals and her technical abilities as a guitarist are far beyond that narrow definition of music and it is going to be interesting in the coming years to find out just how much this multi-talented artist is really capable of.
There may have been a lot of new songs on tonight’s set list, but there was still room for some of the Samantha Fish crowd pleasers, including of course "Bulletproof" Not forgetting of course, a much applauded by this audience cover of R L Burnside's "Poor Mattie”.
There seemed to be more than a technical gremlin or two in the works a few times tonight, but Samantha Fish just let the people around her do their job while she did hers, never stopping the flow of this show. That is always the mark of a true professional performer.
Opening this show tonight, as they did last time Samantha Fish was in Edinburgh, were The Zac Schulze Gang. This trio, formed in Gillingham in 2020, are attracting a lot of attention from many people in the music industry at the moment, and they deserve it. This was another high energy set from Zac and the band, and they do so much remind me of many 1970s punk bands that I saw back in the day. They are certainly that jolt to the system that music needs at the moment. Their cover of "Walkin' The Dog" was, as with most of their songs, relentless high energy, and utterly unique. One day though, this band might just slow down, breathe a little. We know they can do it fast, but can they do it slow?
Review by Tom King (c) 2026
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com.