SAM AMIDON

Sam Amidon // Home Alone Inside my Head

LTG 010  //  Release Date : August 21st, 2015

Sam Amidon is a folk musician living in Los Angeles, CA.  Sam grew up in a family of traditional folk musicians in Burlington Vermont, where he also formed collaborations with artists Nico Muhly and Thomas Bartlett (Doveman).  Sam has released records with the Icelandic collective Bedroom Community, and currently is an artist on the legendary Nonesuch Records.   

Sam is known for his beautiful, storied singing voice, and his virtuosity on fiddle, banjo and guitar.  He creates within the folk tradition of reworking old traditional songs and melodies, but references iconic new musics as far flung as Jimi Hendrix to Bruno Mars to jazz and avant-garde. Live he spins tales with his impeccable wit, cleverly re-contextualizing these traditional works and modern conceptual legacies into new folk experiences.   

For Sam's Lightning release, he is releasing a series of self-induced field recordings he made over the course of Winter/Spring 2002 after having recently just studied with two musical gurus - Kentucky traditional fiddle tune master Bruce Greene, and legendary free jazz violinist / AACM associate Leroy Jenkins.   

Sam Talks about his Lightning Release: 

My world had been opened up by each of them but in entirely different ways and I wanted to sort of bring the lessons of each together into one document. 

It was recorded onto my trusty Marantz tape recorder, mostly at my apartment in Yonkers NY, over the course of winter/spring 2002. I went on a long kayak ride in the northern seas and came back with the idea to make "Home Alone Inside My Head.  I carried the tape recorder around wherever I went, and made these "self-inflicted field recordings" as they emerged from inside.  The first song, "Sally Gal," is a fiddle tune that was first recorded by a Black fiddle player named Will Adam. Most of the other pieces were improvised/composed by myself with a couple other exceptions, including the track where I play along with some women singing- that is a field recording of Ottawa Indians singing a melody that I had first heard in old Shape Note hymns.