[rating=6.00]
Though he’s been known to channel an Appalachian style folk sound, Sam Amidon is getting more playful. On his latest record, The Following Mountain, Amidon gets experimental with his arrangements and his vocals, creating an oddly pleasant dissonance that is intriguing and thought-provoking. And for the first time, Amidon has made a record of entirely original songs, rather than his usual play on traditional folk songs of the past. Amidon’s quieter, folksy roots are still showing on The Following Mountain, but it is much more of a live wire than any record he has made to date.
Standout track “Another Story Told” feels like a timely protest song about casualties racking up. Whether you apply it to the steady string of gun violence deaths or the pattern of police brutality, or just let it stand on its own, it’s a song about identity and finding your place in the world. It is also, arguably, Amidon’s catchiest song ever, with an unexpected drum beat that elevates it from pensive to buoyant, like a folk-hip-hop hybrid. “Another one gone/Another story gets told/When things get for real/My warm heart turns cold,” Amidon hums in his haunting voice.
There’s an improvisational spirit to The Following Mountain. Conversations and directives from the studio sessions are audible. On “Another Story Told” we hear Amidon call out “fiddle” before the instrument kicks in for a solo. When the song fades in, you hear the tail end of a conversation. Amidon plays with a new array of sounds on this record, mixing synth with flute (“Gendel in 5”), banjo with bongos (“Blackbird”). On “April” Amidon delves deep into this cacophonous collage with an abstract layering of instrumentals and sounds, collaborating with legendary jazz drummer Milford Graves. Aggressive, high-pitched string plucking mixes with whinnying saxophone and Amidon’s spontaneous vocal riffing. It is tribal, raw and chaotic, and listens almost like walking into his rehearsal space undetected, a fly on the wall. It is an exciting evolution for Amidon.
