Samantha was featured in the June issue of Relix Magazine, talking about what it's like being a female coming up in the in the San Francisco music scene.

"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."

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Austin, Texas -- Samantha Stollenwerck might not have been offered an evening slot at the South by Southwest music conference, but she'll do her damnedest to make sure her afternoon showcase at the tiny Momo's bar, at the wrong end of Sixth Street, is the best show of her young life.

It took all of Stollenwerck's money and frequent-flier miles to shuttle her and her band, the Ritual, to this most famous of pop music showcase festivals recently, where agents, record-company execs and producers hopscotch from venue to venue looking for the Next Big Thing. But it was worth any amount of time and money to the aspiring San Francisco singer-songwriter.

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The lyrics to Bay Area singer-songwriter Samantha Stollenwerck's new song "Balco Blues," courtesy of The San Francisco Chronicle:

"Now everybody wishes they could hit a ball out of the park
but not everybody wants to be swimming with the sharks.
Well Mr. Bonds, I take my hat off to you today.
I'll trade my guitar for your bat and then let's play.

Now you've got no excuse, now you can play the Balco Blues."

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Issue #48...Though Saturday is a complete sellout at 75,000 (over 200,000 altogether attended the festival), its content is shallow when held against the other

two days. It pays to arrive early on Sunday, though Samantha Stollenwerck's "Cali-soul" is as delicious as a late-morning Bloody Mary, even if the buzz goes unnoticed by all but a couple of dozen gathered for her 40 minutes. Stollenwerck's phenomenal, near gospel reading of Van Morrison's "And It Stoned Me" alone justifies my trip from Denver." Brian T. Atkinson

"The most important thing I've discovered about rhythm guitar is that less is more... Letting the song breathe is better than overplaying."

With two rockin’ shows last week, Mountain Village is well on its way to becoming a musical hotspot. The little hamlet keeps it up this week with a great show from a fast rising female rocker from California named Samantha Stollenwerck for the Sunset Concert Series. And the following weekend, the Village hosts its first music festival, Cajun Fest, featuring all things hot and spicy from New Orleans, including tasty grub, the quintessential funk trio Porter/Batiste/Stoltz and the rocking Gamble Brothers.

Stollenwerck is more than a sweet, beautiful girl from San Francisco. She is on a mission, giving a certain intensity to her laid back California style. When I talked to her last week, she was fending off a cold due to lack of sleep, getting ready to play a gig later that night and then wake up early the next morning to make the four and a half hour drive to play an early set at the High Sierra Music Festival. She is serious about maintaining her cool, but she is also serious about the music business.

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VAIL - Driving down the 101 along the California coast with the top down and not a cloud in the sky, you could throw Jack Johnson's "In Between Dreams" in the CD player or you could put on Samantha Stollenwerck's "Square One."

A rising, young singer/songwriter and guitarist, the blonde beauty from San Francisco may just be Johnson's female counterpart. It's the kind of music you want to listen to on a sunny day, when you're feeling good or on your front porch watching the sunset.

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"I write pop songs but there's this element of letting go," says Samantha Stollenwerck, as she zips out the window and races towards a lurking meter maid. I immediately make two observations: 1. She didn't use the door and 2. She doesn't look both ways when she crosses the street? "That was close," she sighs and hops back in through the window. I'm pretty sure she could have talked her way out of the ticket. To pimp a line from Jerry Maguire, Samantha had me at, "Are you Jason?"

Without knowing it the singer/songwriter with a Joplin-esque tongue exudes an enviable coolness caught somewhere between devilish spontaneity and Aphrodite charm. One thing is for certain: if she can't break in through the front door, she'll hop in through the window.

Ashlee lip-syncs. Avril has the rage. And Britney dresses like Slutty McSlutterson.

Female musicians these days are hard to take seriously (and even harder to listen to). Thank goodness for local singer-songwriter Samantha Stollenwerck, who honed her own self-coined "Cali-Soul" music from such influences as Paul Simon, Van Morrison, Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, Chris Robinson, and Joni Mitchell. Blame her English major for the profound lyrics, which go perfectly with her folky-pop sound... She's a girl who rocks. No overproduced tracks. No irritating female-empowerment messages. And no exposed butt cleavage.