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Review: 'AMIDON, SAM'
'Bright Sunny South'   

-  Label: 'Nonesuch'
-  Genre: 'Folk' -  Release Date: '13th May 2013'-  Catalogue No: '530858-2'

Our Rating:
Creativity comes in many guises. The paradox of Sam Amidon's sublime music is that he manages to produce something so original and imaginative out of songs that are not his own.

Nine of the eleven songs here are traditional ballads which he reworks or arranges in such a radical way that they become unique creations. The other two tracks are covers but not in any conventional sense of the word.

He gleefully folkifies Tim McGraw's chirpy country song, My Old Friend. Even more boldly, he renders Mariah Carey's Shake It Off unrecognisable by slowing the brash dance tune down into an understated two minute piano ballad. This is a makeover akin to the redefinition of R.Kelly's Relief on his previous album, I See The Sign.

All this takes Amidon far from his upbringing in Vermont where he was immersed in old time folk and gospel. He admits that he was in his early twenties before he heard Bob Dylan for the first time.

His 2007 album, All Is Well, was dedicated to Dock Boggs, an influence that is still evident here on the joyful banjo strumming and hollered vocals of As I Roved Out

Through travelling and performing around the world, Amidon's musical vision has gradually widened. His two albums for the Bedroom Community label were recorded in Iceland and featured orchestral arrangements by Nico Muhly.

Amidon points out, however, that the collective energy that distinguishes those releases is not present on this album. He describes Bright Sunny South as a more personal work :"a lonesome record which comes from a darker, internal space".

Yet listeners should rest assured that, although it may come from a solitary place, this album is by no means gloomily introspective.

Above all, it's a record that displays a greater maturity and confidence, evident in his willingness to take calculated risks.

Amidon's folk roots are still fundamental to the character of his music but this been contextualised within a much broader framework that takes in modern folk, cool jazz and even world music.   

The broadening of his folk repertoire stems partly from his marriage to Beth Orton which prompted a move from America to London. She has introduced him to celebrated British performers like Bert Jansch, Anne Briggs and Martin Carthy.

It is significant too that Jerry Boys, the English engineer on this record, should have worked with Carthy in the 1970s and contributed to groundbreaking World Circuit/Nonesuch records by Buena Vista Social Club and Ali Farka Touré/Toumani Diabeté.

Whether by accident or design, Amidon's burred, tenor voice and the smooth, jazzier arrangements on several tracks, Pharoah being a prime example, also display traces of classic songs by John Martyn and Nick Drake.     

On this album, Amidom sings and plays fiddle, banjo, piano and acoustic guitar. He is backed by producer Thomas Bartlett and multi instrumentalist Shahzad Ismally and Chris Vatalaro. In addition, Jazz trumpeter Kenny Wheeler guests on I Wish I Wish.

Wheeler can also be heard on He's Taken My Feet, the second half on which takes on a free-form rock character.

My one small reservation is that the anguished lyrical content of songs like I Wish I Wish and Short Life tends to be lost in the richness of the new arrangements.

The short closing track is Weeping Mary, featuring Doug Wiselmann on clarinet. This is a rendition of a hymn that his parents Peter and Mary Alice Amidon recorded with the Word of Mouth Chorus in 1977, also on Nonesuch records.

The inclusion of this tune makes it plain that, although Sam Amidon continues to follow other musical pathways, he has not lost sight of where the journey began.

Folk purists will recognise this superb album as the work of an artist who has a deep respect for his source material but should also appreciate the sureness of touch that makes the songs accessible to a wider contemporary audience.



Sam Amidon's website
  author: Martin Raybould

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AMIDON, SAM - Bright Sunny South