Sam Amidon - Sam Amidon (Nonesuch)

WHAT THE COVER LOOKS LIKE:

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WHAT WE SAY:

Maybe it was over familiarity & boredom with the original songs Sam Amidon has known since childhood, or just pleasingly unhinged creativity, but these reimagining of old folk songs into freewheeling, psychedelic folk rock transmogrifications for Nonesuch Records is a start to finish joy, & a lesson for all artists in how to own an old classic.

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WHAT YOUR EARS SAY:

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WHAT THE RELEASE NOTES SAY:

The new album, which Amidon considers the fullest realization to date of his artistic vision, comprises his radical reworkings of nine mostly traditional folk songs, performed with his band of longtime friends and collaborators. Amidon produced the record, applying the sonic universe of his 2017 The Following Mountain to these beloved tunes, many of which he first learned as a child. "Pretty Polly," for example, was one of the first traditional tunes he learned to play, and "Time Has Made a Change" is a song that his parents—singers who were on the 1977 Nonesuch recording Rivers of Delight with the Word of Mouth Chorus—sang around the house when he was young.

Amidon and his frequent band of multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily and drummer Chris Vatalaro were joined in the studio by Belgian guitarist Bert Cools (who played on his last EP), as well as Amidon’s wife, Beth Orton, who adds vocals on three songs. Acoustic bassist Ruth Goller and saxophonist and labelmate Sam Gendel also play on the album, which was mixed by Leo Abrahams. Sam Amidon was mostly recorded live in the studio. Amidon arranged the songs, which are traditional tunes, with the exception of Taj Mahal’s “Light Rain Blues,” Harkins Frye’s “Time Has Made a Change,” and “Hallelujah,” which is an 1835 William Walker shape-note tune using earlier words by Charles Wesley, found in the Sacred Harp collection of early American folk-hymns.