Sam Amidon is to release a four-track EP which pays tribute to Harry Smith. All of the songs are taken from Smith’s hugely influential ‘Anthology of American Folk Music’. Accompanying the announcement is a video for lead single for Mississippi John Hurt’s “Spike Driver Blues”.
The title, Fatal Flower Garden, is taken from one of the darkest in the Anthology which was recorded by Nelstone’s Hawaiians in 1929. The song starts innocently enough with boys playing…until their ball falls into a garden where they are forbidden to tread. You can imagine the fear this song struck in the hearts of children…and adults.
Up stepped this gypsy lady,
All dressed in yellow and green;
“Come in, come in, my pretty little boy,
And get your ball again.”
“I won’t come in, I shan’t come in,
Without my playmates all;
I’ll go to my father and tell him about it –
That’ll cause tears to fall.”
She first showed him an apple sweet,
Then again a gold ring,
Then she showed him a diamond,
That enticed him in.
She took him by his lily-white hand,
She led him through the hall,
She put him into an upper room,
Where no one could hear him call.
Amidon first publicly performed the songs on this EP for a concert commissioned by Ancienne Belgique in Brussels, Belgium, as part of its large-scale Anthology tribute. Fatal Flower Garden was recorded over two days in East London with Amidon and frequent collaborator Shahzad Ismaily playing all the instruments; Leo Abrahams engineered, produced, and mixed.
Amidon says: “Fatal Flower Garden is my tribute to the elusive spirit of Harry Smith and to his wondrous Anthology of American Folk Music. Harry Smith believed in the secret connections and mysteries that existed in culture… whether it was the feeling of Thelonious Monk’s rhythmic phrasing; the patterns in string games and Ukrainian egg painting designs; the wild fiddle tunes; or the epic folk ballads. He understood American Folk Music to be a wildly heterogeneous category that included multiple cultural, racial, and linguistic elements.” He continues, “I love listening through the Anthology for its window in to 1920s musical practices in all their varied glory, but also for the silent consciousness of Harry Smith behind the whole thing. You can picture him listening to the recordings, expounding his theories about the connections between them, and digging all of it.”
The EP will be released on November 15th, prior to which Amidon will embark on a tour of the UK and Ireland, see dates below.
Fatal Flower Garden EP
1. Spike Driver Blues
2. Fatal Flower Garden
3. Dry Bones in the Valley
4. Train on the Island
SAM AMIDON – UK & IRELAND TOUR | OCTOBER – NOVEMBER 2019
Oct 06 – National Concert Hall, Dublin, Ireland
Nov 02 – Walthamstow Folk Festival, Walthamstow
Nov 06 – Gullivers, Manchester
Nov 07 – Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds
Nov 08 – The Black Gate, Galway, Ireland
Nov 09 – The Duncairn, Belfast
Nov 10 – The Hope and Ruin, Brighton
Nov 16 – Merlin Theatre, Sheffield
Nov 17 – The Anvil, Basingstoke
Nov 22 – Folk House Cafe and Bar, Bristol
Nov 23 – Merchant’s Barton, Frome
Pre-Order Digital via Amazon (includes Digital Booklet)
https://smarturl.it/FatalFlowerGarden
Photo credit: John Spinks