With the weather once again threatening to be uncooperative by putting a damper on the evening, it stalled in time for this week’s Levitt AMP Middlesboro performer, Samantha Fish and her band to take the stage.

Fish and her band quickly enthused the crowd with their soulful and intense blues/rock while Samantha put her guitar skills to the test with many shredding solos.

“I started playing music when I was about 15 years old. It was kind of just a hobby when I was a kid. I started taking it more serious in my teenage years,” said Fish regarding her start as a serious musician. “I started going and playing with people and forming my band. It always starts small, one foot in front of the other. It’s my passion, so its kind of developed on its own.”

Fish recalled writing her own original music for the first time.

“I remember the first time I even sat down to write my own song. It was something I never really tried before. I only ever learned covers. The great liberating thing about writing is you really find your voice in it,” she said.

Fish also cited her love of English classes and reading as a child as a natural extension of her love for writing her own music.

When asked what her dream collaborations with other artists would be, living or dead, she cited classic acts such as The Rolling Stones, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and the renowned songwriter Towns Van Zandt.

“I would have loved to kind of pick his brain for lyrics,” she said.

Fish describes her writing process as a “mixed bag.”

“Sometimes I start and I have a melody in my head, and then I sit down and try to put down a story to it. Sometimes I sit down and start writing and it’s like a poem, and I find music for it later. On the rare occasion that everything is perfect, you get everything at once. That’s the best. That’s the most natural and fun way to write,” she said.