sam amidon

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, along with Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, will launch their new album Willows at Kings Place on 24th February–an 80-minute concert of remembrance and renewal.

Acclaimed artists ganavya and Sam Amidon share two new songs, “Would Be Better” and “Willow Street (feat Sam Gendel),” recorded at LEITER’s Funkhaus Studio. The double single traces a tender dialogue between distance and belonging, finding a way home through chosen siblinghood. Amidon’s experimental folk meets ganavya’s devotional depth, joined by Sam Gendel’s distinct ambient jazz.

Taken from his latest album Salt River, Sam Amidon delivered an excellent live rendition of Lou Reed’s ‘Big Sky’ on Later… With Jools Holland. In a KLOF Mag interview, Amidon told us he “exacerbated that folk-like quality in the verses…The repetitive structure of the lyrics is also very folk-like; I just felt that for all his New York edge, he was trying to give us a very simple, beautiful message.”

Sam Amidon shares his haunting new single ‘Golden Willow Tree’, taken from his forthcoming new album Salt River. Watch the accompanying video featuring a solo performance, filmed and directed by renowned photographer Steve Gullick.

We chat with 21st-century renaissance man Sam Amidon about his influences, his love of instrumental music, jazz and folk; and of course, the creation of his sublime new album ‘Salt River’.

Sam Amidon’s Salt River is an album whose full kaleidoscopic experience is revealed through repeated listens. 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.

Taken from his forthcoming album ‘Salt River’, Sam Amidon shares a lyric video for his new single ‘Friends and Neighbors’, a joyful rendition of Ornette Coleman’s ode to communality. It’s also our Song of the Day.

Sam Amidon shares his new single/video ‘I’m On My Journey Home’ and announces his forthcoming album ‘Salt River’, on which he continues his decades-long quest to recontextualise what it means to sing folk songs or make folk music.

Owen Spafford announces live installation ‘Welcome Here, Kind Stranger’, exploring memory, culture and community through the traditional music Session. It features Owen, Sam Amidon, Brìghde Chaimbeul, Méabh Begley, Mikey Kenney, Louis Campbell and artist Annabelle Blott.

Sam Amidon heads to the East Coast of the US in October, and onwards to the UK in November with more dates to follow in the new year. Plus, watch him being interviewed by Peter Broderick on the folk music tradition.

Sam Amidon’s self-titled release is a dreamy listen and despite its ‘folktronica’ vibe, a curiously ageless recording. A handsome and entirely seductive album.

Sam Amidon announces self-titled album featuring radical reworkings of nine mostly traditional folk songs, performed with his band of longtime friends and collaborators. Watch the video for album opener ‘Maggie’.