Folk Tweaking
The Folk revival is thriving. There’s the traditional but
quirky Anais Mitchell & Jefferson Hamer to the prog-refined traditional of
Wolf People - with a considerable range in between and around. Sam Amidon takes
traditional and perhaps deconstructs it the most - though he also toys with songs
from Mariah Carey and Tim McGraw – with core tunes redefined, for example, by the
jazz trumpet of Kenny Wheeler on I Wish I
Wish and He’s Taken My Feet, this
latter ending on a guitar freak-out, to the flute-focus and soft acoustic
guitar of Pharaoh, to a familiar folk
fiddle take within Short Life – all
mostly sung in a Will Oldham-esque vocal to add further layers of modernity. As I Roved Out is all banjo and
turbo-charged vocal; Groundhog is 46
seconds of instrumental guitar; Streets
of Derry is absolutely folk-authentic with fiddle again, and the album ends
on Weeping Mary with opening fuzzed
guitar then clarinet and other instruments, a song apparently played over 30
years ago by his parents in their group Word of Mouth Chorus. An album of considerable strength in its creative interpretations.
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