{"id":1010,"date":"2021-05-04T14:04:15","date_gmt":"2021-05-04T12:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/?post_type=artisti&p=1010"},"modified":"2025-05-22T15:00:33","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T13:00:33","slug":"sam-amidon","status":"publish","type":"artisti","link":"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/artist\/sam-amidon\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Amidon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Sam Amidon flew to Los Angeles late in the winter of 2024 to collaborate with Sam Gendel, he had a deceptively complex plan for their session: That is, he had no real plan at all. Amidon and Gendel had long been two members of a mutual admiration society. When Amidon first saw Gendel play at his now-fabled residency at the Hollywood Italian restaurant Pace years earlier, he was wowed by Gendel\u2019s open-ended enthusiasm and stylistic vim, plus charmed by his invitation to sit in on violin, though he didn\u2019t know much about making \u201cjazz.\u201d Gendel, too, had been an ardent fan of Amidon\u2019s voice and flexibility since seeing him on YouTube nearly two decades ago. Gendel even joined Amidon and the great Milford Graves for the 12-minute finale of 2017\u2019s The Following Mountain<\/em>. But what, exactly, were the New England folk musician now living in England and the pedal-hopping polyglot saxophonist going to do for the better part of a week in Gendel\u2019s Venice home, in his ad hoc dining room studio? Neither exactly knew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amidon offered up two ideas. First, they could simply play, pursuing whatever ideas felt good as they jammed. Or, perhaps, they could tinker with a batch of interpretations Amidon had been building, a loose set of somewhat familiar tunes\u2014Yoko Ono\u2019s \u201cAsk the Elephant,\u201d Lou Reed\u2019s \u201cBig Sky,\u201d the rapturous hymn \u201cOld Churchyard,\u201d the standard English shanty \u201cGolden Willow Tree.\u201d Gendel\u2019s eyes and imagination lit up with the latter idea, or at the chance to help Amidon in his decades-long quest to recontextualize what it means to sing a folk song or make folk music. When Amidon left Los Angeles just days later, the bulk of Salt River<\/em>\u2014his Gendel-produced debut for River Lea Recordings \/ Rough Trade and a radical reintroduction to the possibilities of Sam Amidon\u2019s music\u2014was done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since his earliest days of releasing records, Amidon has been interested in the idea of submission, of working closely with collaborators who could take his skills as an interpreter, singer, guitarist, and fiddler somewhere unexpected. Thomas Bartlett and Nico Muhly once helped lead him to those unknowns, as did producer and multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily. His confidence as a bandleader and arranger have, of course, increased over decades on stages and in studios; his self-titled 2020 album, full of idiosyncratic and imaginative new renditions of sometimes-ancient songs, was the result of a touring unit, working as one. The submission had been subsumed. But he longed to be a beginner again, to submit to a process that was unfamiliar and even exotic with someone he knew he could trust\u2014namely, someone like Gendel, whose understanding of how electronics might be applied to material often rendered with acoustic instruments intrigued Amidon. They invited drummer Philippe Melanson, a frequent collaborator of both, to join. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taken together, these 10 songs feel like a shared playground of discovery, Amidon finding new ways for old songs to exist in the company of two unfettered collaborators. They imbue Reed\u2019s \u201cBig Sky,\u201d for instance, with the cool aplomb of Arthur Russell. Fluorescent stretches of synthesizer and slowly shuddering electronic drums interlock with Amidon\u2019s acoustic guitar, together holding up his voice like the sky itself. They treat the shape-note great \u201cOn My Journey Home\u201d like an emotional seesaw, giving its story of heavenward ascent hints of both gothic dread and New Age grace. The trio\u2019s transformation of \u201cOld Churchyard,\u201d a classic hymn with deep roots in England and the United States,\u201d is stunning. Here titled \u201cThree Five,\u201d it uses tessellated rhythms and a half-dozen electronic layers to suggest the clouds breaking, redemption arriving as darkness yields to whatever comes after. The fun they have with the fiddle tune \u201cSalt River\u201d during \u201cTavern,\u201d the wonder they embody during Ono\u2019s play on perspective \u201cAsk the Elephant,\u201d the way they dance in unison during Grey Larsen\u2019s coruscant \u201cOldenfjord\u201d: Amidon has never seemed to delight so much in warping source material so much as he has here, surrounded by this very good company. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salt River <\/em>is credited to Amidon\u2014a solo record, with Gendel producing and Melanson contributing assorted drums. But he\u2019ll be the first to tell you that\u2019s not quite right, that this is instead a group effort, made by three people who submitted not only to one another\u2019s impulses but also to trying something new together. There in Gendel\u2019s home, they built a little short-lived community, playing together beneath headphones until they would walk to the market together to buy ingredients for dinner that night. Amidon, after all, has always been drawn to music from communities, from groups of people sharing shape-note songs or hymns or drinking songs, groups of people sharing a moment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


You can hear that essence so well on the trio\u2019s joyful rendition of Ornette Coleman\u2019s \u201cFriends and Neighbors,\u201d dishes and glasses clinking as Amidon first finds the melody and the lick. Melanson and Gendel slowly join in, playful bells and electronics and drums slipping around the recording of their dinnertime conversation. At the end, they all sing together, chanting out Coleman\u2019s credo\u2014\u201cFriends and neighbors, that\u2019s where it\u2019s at,\u201d and so on\u2014like they\u2019re gathered around a digital campfire. It\u2019s a beautiful snapshot from a record of astounding possibility, where past and future brush side by side in a present of friendship and exploration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

website<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12855,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"class_list":["post-1010","artisti","type-artisti","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSam Amidon - Ponderosa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/artist\/sam-amidon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sam Amidon - Ponderosa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When Sam Amidon flew to Los Angeles late in the winter of 2024 to collaborate with Sam Gendel, he had a deceptively complex plan for their session: That is, he had no real plan at all. Amidon and Gendel had long been two members of a mutual admiration society. When Amidon first saw Gendel play […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/artist\/sam-amidon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ponderosa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-22T13:00:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/3f818966__E5A2566_Sam-Amidon-101224_Gullick-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/artist\/sam-amidon\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/artist\/sam-amidon\/\",\"name\":\"Sam Amidon - Ponderosa\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/artist\/sam-amidon\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/artist\/sam-amidon\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/3f818966__E5A2566_Sam-Amidon-101224_Gullick-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-04T12:04:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-22T13:00:33+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/artist\/sam-amidon\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/artist\/sam-amidon\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/artist\/sam-amidon\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/3f818966__E5A2566_Sam-Amidon-101224_Gullick-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/3f818966__E5A2566_Sam-Amidon-101224_Gullick-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":1707,\"height\":2560},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/artist\/sam-amidon\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Artist\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/artist\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sam Amidon\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Ponderosa\",\"description\":\"Music&Art\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sam Amidon - Ponderosa","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/artist\/sam-amidon\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sam Amidon - Ponderosa","og_description":"When Sam Amidon flew to Los Angeles late in the winter of 2024 to collaborate with Sam Gendel, he had a deceptively complex plan for their session: That is, he had no real plan at all. Amidon and Gendel had long been two members of a mutual admiration society. When Amidon first saw Gendel play […]","og_url":"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/artist\/sam-amidon\/","og_site_name":"Ponderosa","article_modified_time":"2025-05-22T13:00:33+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1707,"height":2560,"url":"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/3f818966__E5A2566_Sam-Amidon-101224_Gullick-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/artist\/sam-amidon\/","url":"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/artist\/sam-amidon\/","name":"Sam Amidon - Ponderosa","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/artist\/sam-amidon\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/artist\/sam-amidon\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/3f818966__E5A2566_Sam-Amidon-101224_Gullick-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2021-05-04T12:04:15+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-22T13:00:33+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/artist\/sam-amidon\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/artist\/sam-amidon\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/artist\/sam-amidon\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/3f818966__E5A2566_Sam-Amidon-101224_Gullick-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/3f818966__E5A2566_Sam-Amidon-101224_Gullick-scaled.jpg","width":1707,"height":2560},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/artist\/sam-amidon\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Artist","item":"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/artist\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sam Amidon"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/","name":"Ponderosa","description":"Music&Art","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artisti\/1010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artisti"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/artisti"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ponderosa.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}