Our latest Off the Shelf guest is Sam Amidon. In this series, we ask an artist to select ten items from their home, photograph and talk about them; a form of storytelling through objects.
Sam is a singer and multi-instrumentalist originally from Vermont, now based in London. He is no stranger to these pages; only last year, he released Salt River, his first release on River Lea Records. As noted by Danny Neill in his review of the album: “Eclectic is an easily applied word, but here we have an artist releasing a groundbreaking, spirited and adventurous album that is genuinely worthy of the description.” Shortly after that review, Sam spoke to us in some detail about Salt River, as well as his influences and his love of instrumental music, jazz and folk (read it here).
That same spirit of adventure can also be heard in a new collaboration with the Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. Their quietly radical new album, Willows, is released this Friday, 20th February, and next week they will launch the album at Kings Place, London, on Tuesday, 24th February (Tickets and details here).
At the programme’s heart is a reimagining of Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending — one of classical music’s most beloved works, stripped of its accumulated sentiment to reveal something altogether stranger and more vital. Alongside it, Ellen Reid’s Desiderium offers an intimate meditation on grief, written in memory of Kuusisto’s late brother, while Caroline Shaw’s crystalline Plan & Elevation adds another layer of contemporary voice to the evening.
Sam Amidon, whose adventurous reworkings of traditional song have long occupied a compelling space between folk and the avant-garde, performs songs arranged by Nico Muhly — a collaboration that feels entirely at home in this company.
It promises to be an 80-minute concert of remembrance and renewal.
This isn’t the first time Sam has worked alongside the Finnish violinist. Here they are in 2017, rehearsing ‘Wedding Dress’ with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, a traditional American folk song reinvented by Amidon and arranged by Nico Muhly.
Off the Shelf with Sam Amidon
1. My Santa autograph
When I was in my early 20s, I was in a restaurant with my grandparents in Western Massachusetts. An older man walked in wearing a dark suit. He had white hair and a white beard. I said, “Are you Santa?” and he said, “Yes. Do you want my autograph?” and he took this card out of his pocket and gave it to me.
2. My index card from Gerry Fialka
As a teenager, I attended a folk music camp on Swan’s Island, Maine. There, I met an amazing countercultural character named Gerry Fialka, who had worked for many years as Frank Zappa’s archivist, and who still to this day runs the Finnegan’s Wake reading group in Venice, CA. Over the course of a week chatting, he turned me on to all sorts of amazing music and art that I should check out, but I had forgotten a lot of it by the end of the week. On the last day, he presented me with an index card listing it all – Harry Partch, Ornette Coleman’s theory of Harmolodics, Sonny Sharrock. Many of those things proceeded to blow my mind, and I still have the card he gave me.
3. My basketball shoes
My weekly basketball scrimmage in London, where I live, is the anchor of my week. I’m proud to have been voted “hustle player” in 2024.
4. Crescent by John Coltrane (LP)
When I was a teenager, I would go to the CD store and check out the CDs by Miles Davis and John Coltrane. In those days, when you were in a CD store deciding what to get, all you had to go on was graphic design and what it said on the back of the CD. The Miles Davis albums often had different looks, covers, vibes and personnel, so it was easy to choose one on instinct. The John Coltrane Impulse Records albums all had a similar cover design and the same band. This led to decision paralysis and I could never decide which one to buy. I asked a friend of my parents which album I should start with. He suggested Crescent, which I took home and which blew my mind, is deeply meditative and beautiful. I recently purchased it on LP and I listen to it constantly.
5. My flannel shirt
Yes, I am that folksinger with the flannel shirt.
6. Capo
That magic object! Like socks, they disappear and reappear.
7. “I’ll Never Forget” CD by The Amidons
My parents, Peter and Mary Alice Amidon, made a series of classic albums of folk music starting in the 1980s. These albums have only been available by mail order from their house until just now: we have made a bunch of them available digitally on Bandcamp. But I still cherish my CD copies, including this album, which we made when I was 12 years old and my brother Stefan was 9.
8. Chuck Amuck, by Chuck Jones
This is one of the best books on creativity I have ever read.
9. CDs for the car
I recently bought an old Volvo with a CD player. CDs rule ! ! ! I am back to having an array of CDs in the back seat to pull from. I have been purchasing CDs which are not available on ye olde streaming services, the most brilliant being Arto Lindsay’s mid 90s masterpiece Aggregates 1-26, with Melvin Gibbs on bass and Dougie Bowne on drums.
10. Frisbee
Ultimate frisbee was the official hippie sport of Vermont, where I grew up. I have found an ultimate frisbee game now in London, where I live, and it is the key to happiness and joy.
Don’t miss the Willows album launch ft. Pekka Kuusisto, Sam Amidon and musicians of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. Kngs Place, London on Tuesday 24th February, 2026. Full details and tickets: https://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/classical/pekka-kuusisto-sam-amidon-and-the-musicians-of-the-norwegian-chamber-orchestra/
Here is Sam performing ‘Golden Willow Tree’ from Salt River. He first heard the song, an English sea chanty turned Appalachian ballad, being sung by American folk singer Almeda Riddle. He shared with KLOF: “…the stories of these folk songs are so fascinating with the imagery, and for me, it is fun to try and find new settings that bring out different sides of those stories. Like the ‘Golden Willow Tree’…we tried giving it this very monotonous but hopefully moody background that lets you kind of swim inside the story.”