Sam Amidon | |
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 Amidon at the Moers Festival 2016 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Samuel Tear Amidon |
| Born | June 3, 1981 Brattleboro, Vermont, United States |
| Genres | Folk |
| Occupation(s) |
|
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar, banjo, fiddle |
| Labels | Nonesuch, Bedroom Community, Plug Research |
| Website | samamidon |
Samuel Tear Amidon (born June 3, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist.
Amidon's parents are folk artists Peter Amidon and Mary Alice Amidon. [1] They were members of Bread and Puppet Theater in the 1970s, touring with the group in Europe and living on the Bread and Puppet Farm in Glover, Vermont. They appeared on the 1977 Nonesuch recording Rivers of Delight with the Word of Mouth Chorus, a classic recording of shape-note / Sacred Harp folk hymns by early American composers. [2] His younger brother, Stefan Amidon, is a professional drummer who performs with The Sweetback Sisters [3] among other groups.
Amidon grew up in Brattleboro, Vermont, where he sang in the family band with his parents and played fiddle from the age of 3. By 13 he was playing professionally with pianist Thomas Bartlett, a childhood friend, and with his brother Stefan, in the contradance band Popcorn Behavior. Inspired by groups such as Wild Asparagus and Nightingale, as well as the traditional Irish fiddlers Martin Hayes and Tommy Peoples, Popcorn Behavior released their first album in 1994 when Amidon and Bartlett were 14 and 13, respectively, and Stefan was 10. Keith Murphy joined the group for their third album and the band toured throughout the country, released five albums, and were interviewed on NPR's "All Things Considered", all while the band members were still in high school. [4] [5] Amidon attended The Putney School in Putney, Vermont for one year.
As a teenager, Amidon discovered music by artists such as Tony Conrad, Albert Ayler, Yo La Tengo, Miles Davis and Don Cherry, as well as reissues of field recordings of the Old Weird America such as the Harry Smith Anthology, the Alan Lomax Southern Journey series, and the songs of Dock Boggs. [6] In the early 2000s, he lived in New York City and played in the experimental indie rock bands Doveman and Stars Like Fleas. [7]
In 2001, Amidon self-released Solo Fiddle, an album of traditional Irish fiddle instrumentals. [8]
Amidon's first album of songs, But This Chicken Proved False Hearted (2007), was made with longtime collaborator Thomas Bartlett and was initially released on the Los Angeles-based electronic label Plug Research. [9] It was reissued on CD and LP in 2015 by Omnivore Recordings. [10]
His second album, All Is Well (2008), was produced, recorded and mixed by Valgeir Sigurðsson at Greenhouse Studios in Iceland and featured orchestral arrangements by Nico Muhly. His third album, I See the Sign (2010), was also produced by Sigurðsson and featured multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily and orchestral arrangements by Muhly, with guest vocals by Beth Orton. Both albums were released on the Icelandic label/collective Bedroom Community [11] and met with critical acclaim [12] from sources such as Pitchfork, Stylus Magazine and the New York Times, which chose I See the Sign as a top-ten album of 2010. [13]
Amidon's fourth album, Bright Sunny South , produced by Bartlett and Jerry Boys, was released 14 May 2013, his first on Nonesuch Records. His next album, Lily-O , recorded with a band consisting of Ismaily, Bill Frisell, and Chris Vatalaro, was released on the same label on 30 September 2014. "A hauntingly beautiful new album" according to the New York Times, PopMatters called it "a thing of beauty and wonder, bold and strong".
Amidon's next album, The Following Mountain , was released in May 2017, again on Nonesuch Records. It was his first album of original compositions, contrary to his previous work, which mostly reworked existing music. [14]
Amidon has appeared as a guest artist on albums by Tune-Yards, Glen Hansard, Jacob Collier, Mx Justin Vivian Bond, Olof Arnalds, The Blind Boys of Alabama, The National’s Grateful Dead Tribute Day Of The Dead, and others. [15] He has also self-published a book, Notes On The Twitterographer. [16]
Amidon tours extensively throughout the US & Canada, Europe, Australia and Japan, and has appeared at festivals such as End of the Road, Green Man, Roskilde, Lowlands, Pickathon, Solid Sound, Big Ears, Celebrate Brooklyn, The Sydney Festival, the Jaipur Literature Festival, and others. He has become known for freewheeling concert performances, [17] often with Vatalaro and Ismaily.
In 2007 he premiered Muhly's The Only Tune at Carnegie Hall as part of John Adams's In Your Ear festival. [18] He has performed the piece at London’s Roundhouse and Barbican, as well as at Cork’s Safe Harbour festival in collaboration with the Crash Ensemble. Writing about the recorded version of The Only Tune, which appeared on Muhly’s 2008 album Mothertongue, Greil Marcus said, "It’s incalculably spooky, the way the action comes out of nowhere, the way Amidon has prepared you to expect nothing."
Between 2002 and 2006, Amidon devised a multimedia program called "Home Alone Inside My Head," consisting of "self-inflicted field recordings," drawn comics, short videos, storytelling and improvisation. He excerpted the project online and performed it in full at experimental music and art spaces around New York City and Brooklyn and beyond, including NYC’s The Kitchen and MAD Museum, Monkeytown in Brooklyn, the AVA gallery on NYC’s Lower East Side, Cincinnati’s CAC, the Kuhturm Gallery in Leipzig, and MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA. [19] [20]
Amidon has performed as part of the Bedroom Community Whale Watching Tour [21] at The Barbican and Reykjavik’s Harpa concert hall. He has also appeared in 2015 and 2016 at the Bon Iver-curated Eaux Claires festival in Wisconsin, [22] performing his own music and appearing onstage as guest vocalist with Bon Iver, Richard Reed Parry, and parading the grounds of the festival leading a pop-up "Guitarkestra." In September 2016, Amidon hosted a multi-artist tribute to Pete Seeger at Ireland’s National Concert Hall in Dublin, [23] featuring Irish and American artists such as Tommy Sands, Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh, The Voice Squad, Bell X1 and others. Amidon has done collaborative concerts and mini-tours with artists such as Bill Frisell, Nels Cline, Jason Moran, and Marc Ribot. [24] In February 2017 he toured as soloist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra [25] under the direction of Pekka Kuusisto, including performances at the Sydney Opera House, Sydney Recital Hall, and concerts throughout the country. In 2020 he played at the first edition of the Monheim Triennale. [26]
Amidon is married to musician Beth Orton. They have a son, Arthur, born in 2011. [27] Based in London, [27] the musicians lived in Los Angeles for several years before returning to the UK. [28]
Oren Bloedow is an American singer, guitarist and bassist. He founded the band Elysian Fields in 1995 with Jennifer Charles. His father, Jerry Bloedow, was a playwright, poet, and film editor whose theater, the Hardware Poet's Playhouse, participated in the New York avant-garde scene in the 1950s and 1960s.
The National is an American rock band from Cincinnati, Ohio, formed in Brooklyn, New York City in 1999. The band consists of Matt Berninger (vocals), twin brothers Aaron Dessner and Bryce Dessner, as well as brothers Scott Devendorf (bass) and Bryan Devendorf (drums). Carin Besser, the wife of Matt Berninger, is not a band member but has written lyrics for the band alongside her husband since its 2007 album Boxer.
Valgeir Sigurðsson is an Icelandic record producer, mixer, composer, audio engineer and musician.
Nico Asher Muhly is an American contemporary classical music composer and arranger who has worked and recorded with both classical and pop musicians. A prolific composer, he has composed for many notable symphony orchestras and chamber ensembles and has had two operas commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera. Since 2006, he has released nine studio albums, many of which are collaborative, including 2017's Planetarium with Sufjan Stevens, Bryce Dessner & James McAlister. He is a member of the Icelandic music collective and record label Bedroom Community.
Thomas Bartlett, also known as Doveman, is an American pianist, producer, and singer. He has released four solo albums as Doveman, four albums as a member of The Gloaming, duo albums with the composer Nico Muhly and the hardanger d’amore player Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, and "Shelter," an album of solo piano compositions.
Bryce David Dessner is an American composer and guitarist based in Paris, as well as a member of the rock band the National. Dessner's twin brother, Aaron is also a member of the group. Together, they write the music in collaboration with lead singer and lyricist Matt Berninger.
All Is Well is the second album by the singer and multi-instrumentalist Sam Amidon, released in 2008. It was produced and mixed by Valgeir Sigurðsson at Greenhouse Studios in Reykjavik and released on the Bedroom Community label. The album features Amidon's reworkings of traditional folk songs, with chamber-orchestra arrangements by composer Nico Muhly and additional contributions from violist Eyvind Kang, electronic musician Ben Frost, and percussionists Aaron Siegel and Stefan Amidon.
Omara "Bombino" Moctar is a Tuareg singer-songwriter and guitarist from Niger. His music is sung in Tamasheq and often addresses Tuareg geopolitical concerns. Bombino is the subject of the documentary film Agadez, the Music and the Rebellion.
Mountain Man is an American singing trio of women described as "nestled in the tradition of American folk" with a traditional Appalachian folk sound. They have earned acclaim from a number of music critics. They often sing a cappella, with a "sparse, haunting, hymnal beauty" sometimes accompanied by soft acoustic guitar, but with their voices "virtually unadorned", according to Guardian critic Paul Lester. The group toured with the vocalist Feist in 2011, and New York Times music reviewer Ben Ratliff described their performance as "creating shifting harmonies" which "worked perfectly".
Lianne Charlotte Barnes, known professionally as Lianne La Havas, is a British singer-songwriter and record producer. Her career began after being introduced to various musicians, including singer Paloma Faith, for whom she sang backing vocals. In 2010, La Havas signed to Warner Bros. Records, spending two years developing her songwriting, before releasing any music. La Havas' debut studio album, Is Your Love Big Enough? (2012), was released to positive reviews from critics and earned her a nomination for the BBC's Sound of 2012 poll and awards for the iTunes Album of The Year 2012. She has released two other studio albums since, Blood in 2015 and Lianne La Havas in 2020. She was nominated once for a Grammy award in 2016 and twice for Brit Awards, in 2017 and 2021. She currently lives in London.
The Staves are an English indie folk duo of sisters Jessica and Camilla Staveley-Taylor from Watford, Hertfordshire, England.
Bedroom Community is an Icelandic record label/collective which was founded in 2006 by producer Valgeir Sigurðsson, alongside fellow artists Nico Muhly and Ben Frost, later adding more artists to the roster. Based on the outskirts of Reykjavík, Iceland, Bedroom Community is also the home of Greenhouse Studios.
Bright Sunny South is an album by Sam Amidon released May 14, 2013, by Nonesuch Records The album was recorded at Snap Recording Studios and Livington Studios in London. Amidon, his friend Thomas Bartlett, and Jerry Boys produced the album. Amidon sings and performs banjo, fiddle, acoustic guitar, and piano on the album. Bartlett performs several instruments, as do Shahzad Ismaily and Chris Vatalaro; Kenny Wheeler performs trumpet on two tracks.
Olivia Chaney is an English folk singer, pianist, guitarist, harmonium player and songwriter. Her debut solo album, The Longest River, was released on Nonesuch Records in 2015. Her follow-up solo album, Shelter, was released on Nonesuch on 15 June 2018.
Lily-O is the fifth album by singer and multi-instrumentalist Sam Amidon. The album is a collection of reworked folksongs, arranged and sung by Amidon, accompanying himself on guitar and banjo, with a band consisting of Bill Frisell, Shahzad Ismaily and Chris Vatalaro. The album was recorded and mixed by Valgeir Sigurðsson at Greenhouse Studios in Reykjavik, Iceland and was released on Nonesuch Records in 2014.
But This Chicken Proved Falsehearted is the first album of songs by experimental folk artist Sam Amidon, going under the name Samamidon. The album was produced by Thomas Bartlett. It was initially released in 2007 by Plug Research in the US and Birdwar in Europe, and was reissued by Omnivore Recordings in 2015.
I See the Sign is the third album by experimental folk artist Sam Amidon, released in 2010. The album features Amidon’s radical reworkings of traditional folk songs, with chamber-orchestra arrangements by composer Nico Muhly; multi-instrumental contributions from Shahzad Ismaily, and guest vocals by Beth Orton. It was produced and mixed by Valgeir Sigurðsson at Greenhouse Studios in Reykjavik and released on the Bedroom Community label.
The Following Mountain is the sixth album by singer and multi-instrumentalist Sam Amidon, released in 2017 by Nonesuch Records. It is Amidon's first album of original compositions, the previous albums having been made up primarily of re-worked traditional folk songs. The album was produced by Leo Abrahams with additional production from Shahzad Ismaily, and it includes contributions from legendary free jazz drummer Milford Graves, as well as the saxophonist Sam Gendel, drummer Chris Vatalaro, multi-instrumentalist Ismaily, and Jimi Hendrix percussionist Juma Sultan on the song "Juma Mountain." Amidon himself plays fiddle, banjo, acoustic and electric guitars, and Moog synthesizer on the album, along with his own vocals.
Rob Moose is an American multi-instrumentalist, arranger, producer, conductor, and orchestrator. He primarily plays the violin, viola, and guitar.
Folk Songs is a 2017 studio album by American string quartet Kronos Quartet, featuring classical and roots musicians Sam Amidon, Olivia Chaney, Rhiannon Giddens, and Natalie Merchant. It has received positive reviews from critics and was followed in 2020 by Long Time Passing, a collection of Pete Seeger songs by the Kronos Quartet.
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