Rough Trade

Sam Amidon will release his new album Salt River on 24 January 2025, his first on River Lea Records.

The Vermont native, who is now based in London, has collaborated with saxophonist and producer Sam Gendel to reinterpret and regenerate ten songs that he has gathered together as part of a decades-long quest to recontextualise what it means to sing folk songs or make folk music.

The music on Salt River ranges from traditional Appalachian ballad “Golden Willow Tree” to a radical reimagining of Lou Reed’s ”Big Sky,” and was recorded by Amidon, Gendel and percussionist Philippe Melanson, who played together as a trio during sessions at Gendel’s home in Los Angeles.

Having initially encountered Gendel at his now-fabled residency at the Hollywood Italian restaurant Pace, Amidon and Gendel have collaborated on various recordings and concerts over the past few years; but Salt River is their first extended collaboration, sparked when Amidon suggested they delve into his treasure box of collected songs.

As Sam himself describes, “This album is a campfire, but the campfire is around Sam Gendel’s synthesizer. Or maybe it’s a journey through the corridors of my memory, if my memory was transplanted into Sam and Phil’s dreams.” Taken together, these 10 songs feel like a shared playground of discovery, with Amidon finding new ways for old songs to exist in the company of his two unfettered collaborators.

The trio imbue Reed’s “Big Sky” with the aplomb of Arthur Russell as fluorescent stretches of synthesiser and shuddering electronic drums interlock with acoustic guitars from Gendel and Amidon; traditional hymn “Old Churchyard” is stunningly rechristened “Three Five” as it tessellates rhythms and electronic layers to evoke a redemptive cloud break, while dishes and glasses clink on their joyful rendition of Ornette Coleman’s ode to communality, “Friends And Neighbours.”

Lead single “I’m On My Journey Home” truly typifies the album's approach giving the New England folk song first noted in the 1700s an authentic yet contemporary new life. Inspired by a “loose swing that I had not heard in other shape note singing recordings” that Amidon found on a rendition of the song by early 20th-century vocal group, The Denson Quartet, the new recording sets the tone for the whole album.

‘“I’m On My Journey Home’ was the first one we tried as a trio and it woke us up,” declares Amidon. "It set us down the path of making Salt River.”

An evocative and stirring video for the track, directed by Allyn Quigley, accompanies the single which is now available to stream, meanwhile Salt River can be pre-ordered now on vinyl and CD ahead of its release in January.