Monday 13 May 2013

Sam Amidon - Bright Sunny South



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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