The Hot Spot

The girl with the longest name in the scene, soulful pop rock songstress Samantha Stollenwerck is saturating the scene with her self-coined “Cali-Soul” from Wakarusa to Bonnaroo and beyond. After recently playing four nights as part of The Everyone Orchestra featuring Steve Kimock, Samantha is looking forward to performing two nights as the opening act for the Dave Matthews Band at Shoreline Amphitheatre in September.

Your bio says you gather your lyrical inspiration from looking out your window. What do you see out your window right now that you would write about?

Right now I am looking out the window of a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere, Virginia, at a big rundown barn out in the backyard. I'm doing some recordings and a guy I am working with is laying down a crazy trumpet part on a Chamberlain keyboard on one of my songs. It sounds like a chaotic bullfight, so I might write about the proverbial man-against-nature story, tie in some Hemmingway and throw a matador and bull in there somewhere. And a barn.

The jamband music scene is undeniably male dominated. Do you see it changing? How does it feel to be one of the few female performers out there?

There is no doubt something special about standing out, and if you're a girl in the jamband scene, you definitely stand out! But I do know how important it is to have girls in every creative scene, and I am excited to see a lot more ladies playing in bands and stepping up. I think it is changing for sure-- look at trail blazers like Bonnie Raitt to newer females like Kaki King and Grace Potter, they are undeniable and a huge source of inspiration for any female who wants to make music.

Tell us about your best or worst summer job.

I worked at a Country Club for a few summers and it was literally right out of Caddyshack. I had to squeegee endless tennis courts and wear all white, but it still constitutes for one of my best summer jobs!

What would we see on a Samantha Reality Show?

You would definitely a whole lot of airline strip searches, writing songs and playing horseshoes, singing the American National Anthem at sound check in Vancouver, Canada, driving in my little sister’s sorority-clad car on tour with G. Love, and surfing! I am rekindling the surfing flame this summer.

What’s your most memorable live performance?

My most memorable live performance to this day is still playing at the Fillmore in San Francisco for the first time. Being from San Francisco, for us it was like Odysseus’s homecoming to Ithaca, it was such a big deal! We opened up for Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, who I absolutely love, and the stage sound was better than anything I had done before. It’s definitely one great notch on the belt for any musician.

LINKS

Samantha's website

Samantha's myspace page