Samantha Fish With Texas Headhunters in Tow, Offers No-Holds-Barred Blues Revival in Biloxi (SHOW REVIEW)

There are plenty of things you can do on a southern spring night – sit on your back porch and enjoy a sunset, catch fireflies, or take in a baseball game. But on Saturday, May 02, 2026, my checkmark landed on the concert box. With Samantha Fish coming into Biloxi’s IP Casino & Resort with the Texas Headhunters in tow, you just knew there would be fireworks.

Samantha Fish is the real deal, folks. For those who see her picture and think she’s just another pretty face holding a guitar, it’s high time you push play and let her knock your socks off. You can start with her early Mike Zito-produced records, work your way through her duet with Devon Allman on “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” then let the bonfire build from the Luther Dickinson-produced Wild Heart from 2015 to her more recent barnburners, Death Wish Blues (2023) with friend Jesse Dayton and Paper Doll (2025). By the time the last note rings out, you’ll be a fan for life. Guaranteed.

So when Fish stepped out onto the IP Casino Studio A stage with her bandmates Ron Johnson on bass, Jamie Douglass on drums, and Mickey Finn on keys, the crowd was humming like a beehive for her. Out of the first six songs, five were from her latest album, Paper Doll: “Paper Doll,” “I’m Done Runnin,” “Sweet Southern Sounds,” and “Lose You.” Merged in there at song #3 was a fan favorite, “Hello Stranger,” from her 2017 release Chills & Fever. She would also throw in “Rusty Razor” and “Don’t Say It” further in the set.

Always fiery onstage, Fish knows how to get an audience riled up. When she hit those first chords of “Bulletproof,” there was no turning back for either her or the audience. Cell phones went up to capture the moments when she tore into her solo on her trademark cigar box guitar, broke out the slide or wailed distortedly on the bullet mic. The sass was hair flying, lip snarlingly real. 

But let’s talk blues. The kind that slinks up your spine and messes with your freaking reality. Example 1: “Fortune Teller” as it slowly entwines itself around the veins, so subtly, like a match igniting without a strike, before burning out your soul with that rhythm team behind Fish that enhances her emotional wails. Be still my beating heart.

Example #2: “Don’t Say It,” full of heartbreak that tears your heart out by the end of the final solo. Fish put so much emotion into those fingers that she broke a string and never blinked an eye. Upon finishing the song, someone yelled out, “Praise the Lord!” Yeah, this could have been a hymnal of the kind not allowed in the church hall; perhaps at the juke joint down the street where this kind of confessional is well-known.

Example #3: “Goin’ Down South,” the RL Burnside swamper brought out Jesse Dayton to join Fish on a lightning strike jam that could have gone on forever, and no one would have objected. Pure energy, pure howling blues. And don’t get me started on the guitar solos both threw out. If you were on the line between loving her and just liking her, this put the roux in the pot. Don’t forget to buy the t-shirt on your way out to prove your newfound allegiance.

Speaking of Dayton, whom I spoke to recently in a brand new interview, his Texas Headhunters brought a three-guitar hot rod opening set that had the crowd unfamiliar with them eating out of the palm of their hands by the time they ended their short opening set with “Gun Barrel Boogie.” “You think I was going to drive all the way from East Texas and not play some boogie woogie,” Dayton said while introducing the blues humdinger.

Ian Moore and Johnny Moeller, both having cut their teeth on the Antone’s stage in Austin, were excellent musicians, each taking turns with Dayton on lead vocals. With their second album coming out this summer, a tour will surely follow, and hopefully longer stage time, because this crowd wasn’t ready to give them up. Honestly, these gentlemen should make an even bigger ruckus in the music world once we hear the new tunes, all done the old-fashioned way, dirty bings and spontaneous whistles brewed up like hot tamales on a summer sweating afternoon.

So, amidst Jazz Fest happening in New Orleans, where Fish has been a staple for a number of years now, this was the dark horse place to be. Let everyone else sunburn in the heat; Samantha Fish and the Texas Headhunters brought their own version to the cool nighttime air along the Mississippi Gulf Coast and set a fire like only they can.

SAMANTHA FISH SETLIST: Paper Doll, I’m Done Runnin’, Hello Stranger, Sweet Southern Sounds, Lose You, No Apology, Bulletproof, Fortune Teller, Gone For Good, Rusty Razor, Don’t Say It, Dark Wind Howlin’; ENCORE: Goin’ Down South.

TEXAS HEADHUNTERS SETLIST: Maggie Went Back To Mineola, Everybody Loves You (When You’re Down), Kathleen, Gimme Some Love, Gun Barrel Boogie.