Growing up among folk musicians in Vermont, Sam Amidon must have been keeping an ear to the ground. For, although now based in London, he is known for his folky free jazz interpretations of traditionals and contemporary songs. What he should also be known for is his invention of land surfing: “You stand in a beautiful field of tall yellow grass and it’s bright light on everything and swaying trees, so you stand there like you are on a surfboard but the surfboard is the ground, and you just surf! You surf the land!!” This description also works for his label debut on Nonesuch Records, his fourth album Bright Sunny South.
Bright Sunny South surfs the land on traditionals, country and pop songs, with Amidon’s snarling vocals quivering with a José González lightness. Sometimes casually resigned, sometimes distantly troubled. And sometimes, as in the magnificent interpretation of Tim McGraw’s “My Old Friend”, fiercely affectionate.
While “As I Roved Out”, with Amidon’s scarring voice, a driven banjo and Shahzad Ismaily on shaker eggs, is reminiscent of a wildling whistling in ancient fields, “Streets of Derry” takes a more urban Irish wander. In contrast to his last two albums, which were dense, centralised soundscapes, Amidon thinks of Bright Sunny South more as a return to a sparser sound, as “a journey, a winding path. The band comes rushing in and then they disappear.” One example is the spiritual “He’s Taken My Feet”; ultimately, the reassuring mantra dissolves into a cloud of distortion where what was found gets lost again. In “I Wish I Wish”, jazz musician Kenny Wheeler rushes into the song with a trumpet sounding like an impossible animal. Brilliant.
Following the tired ghost of Mariah Carey in “Shake It Off” and the uplifting instrumental “Groundhog”, the final song “Weeping Mary” ascends into christ-mass-y elation. Fun fact: Amidon’s parents already recorded a version of this shape-note hymn for Nonesuch Records in 1977.
Thus, the album sort of comes full circle with the first, the title track, for “Bright Sunny South” speaks of boyhoods “scarcely half-spent” and saying goodbye to the family on the way out to an adventure. Perhaps to go land surfing.
Review by: Anne Malewski
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Bright Sunny South is released 13 May 2013 on Nonesuch
Tour Dates
May 23 – Bush Hall (Tickets)
London, United Kingdom
May 24 – Huxley’s Neue Welt
Bristol, United Kingdom
May 25 – Holy Trinity Church
Guildford, United Kingdom
May 26 – The Met
Bury, United Kingdom
Aug 17 – Green Man Festival
Glanusk, United Kingdom