Sam Amidon clearly is an old musical soul.
If you want rap and ska and catchy pop hooks, look elsewhere because Amidon is all about transforming age-old secular ballads, gospel, folk, and hymns so well, in fact, that he’s won buzz from major music critics.
“My parents liked folk, but in high school I got into free jazz, indie rock and those kind of sounds,” Amidon said. “When I moved to New York, the trend was to get away from the sound [you] had grown up with.”
It wasn’t long, though, before Amidon found reinterpreting folk as one of the best ways to grab a piece of the New York music scene and interact with other musicians. After his 2001 CD, “Solo Fiddle,” received such critical success, he became more confident in stretching his folk interpretations even further.
Listeners will hear that on his latest release, “I See The Sign,” which moves from children’s songs to more intricate works.
The songs Amidon chooses, he said, are the ones that “get stuck in your head and often I would write a little guitar part or certain melody [around it].” For that, he does a lot of research until he finds one that he thinks will suit his musical sensibilities.
Although he recorded the album with other musicians, this “Public Transportation American Tour” finds Amidon playing solo.
“I enjoy that because … you don’t have anybody to fall back on,” he said. “You literally can do anything you want during the show. There’s a real freedom to it.”
In a way, the solo performances allow Amidon to best convey the meanings of the folk songs in his set.
“I know that for myself, one reason I love folk songs is that the words are often the old words of wisdom and mystery,” he said. “People singing them often know [the history] they are talking about,” he said. “This is my third album of songs where you can grab from here and there and you can do anything you want to tell a story as long as you use your imagination.”
