The Black Gate Presents: Sam Amidon
8pm, March 2nd
The Mick Lally Theatre
€20
"Amidon’s self-titled record continues his polyglot blending of folk, classical, and jazz, drawing a resounding personal statement out of songs in the public domain" - Pitchfork
Sam Amidon is a singer-fiddler-banjoist-guitarist originally hailing from Vermont, US. He is known for his eccentric musical style which often consists of adventurous interpretations of traditional American ballads, hymns and work songs, with the New York Times writing that Amidon “transforms all of the songs, changing their colours and loading them with trapdoors.” You may recognise Sam from CUMASC, our very own TV show out now on the TG4 Player.
CUMASC: Sam Amidon & Siobhan Peoples
Sam Amidon's self-titled album was released on Nonesuch Records on October 23, 2020, with the vinyl edition out on January 22, 2021. The 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.
Sam Amidon is Amidon’s fifth recording on Nonesuch and follows the 2019 EP Fatal Flower Garden (A Tribute to Harry Smith). Additional recordings include his 2017 album The Following Mountain and Kronos Quartet’s Folk Songs the same year, on which he was a featured singer along with Rhiannon Giddens, Natalie Merchant, and Olivia Chaney; Lily-O in 2014; and his label debut, Bright Sunny South, in 2013.
The Mick Lally Theatre, H91 N5X9