Sam Amidon

Jump to Performer Info

'Amidon doesn't just update the old world to the new, but finds the roots of the new world in the old' - Pitchfork

'In an era of overheated Nick Drake comparisons, Amidon is eerily close to the real thing' - Rolling Stone

'Young Sam has a talent for reinterpreting traditional folk standards, and in the hands of the ever-empathetic Valgeir Sigurdsson and his bedroom community, he's produced a work bordering on the timeless' - David Sylvian



Sam Amidon was born and raised in Vermont by folk musicians Peter and Mary Alice Amidon. He has released three albums of radically re-worked folk songs: But This Chicken Proved Falsehearted, recorded at his then-home of Harlem in 2006 with Thomas Bartlett; followed by All Is Well in 2008 and I See The Sign in 2010, both recorded in Iceland with producer Valgeir Sigurðsson. Sam sings, plays banjo and guitar and fiddle, draws comics and makes little video-stories.

By 17, Sam had taken up the banjo and fallen in love with free jazz, Miles Davis, early indie rock, drone minimalism, mountain ballads and Buster Keaton films. But it wasn't until he moved to New York City in 2002 that he began to play and experience first-hand all of these other kinds of things. Since then he has collaborated with a myriad of artists including Nico Muhly, Thomas Bartlett, Beth Orton, Shahzad Ismaily, Glen Hansard, and Bill Frisell.