American roots explorer Sam Amidon provides a key to what he's about: "For me, folk music is not really so much connected to certain instruments. It's more just a quality a melody could have, or a quality a lyric could have. You can find that anywhere." And that's where Amidon looks – anywhere. But every sound, every word is filtered through his knowingness, his singular interpretation of these songs washed in time. He has said there is a loneliness at the heart of this album, his fourth but first for a major label, and certainly tracks such as He's Taken My Feet, Short Life and I Wish I Wish carry a sense of isolation, accentuated by the minimalist instrumentation (with some surprises) and his slight, slightly off-centre voice. But this is intriguing, beguiling music, brilliantly different and yet paradoxically, strangely familiar.
Samamidon.com
Download: He's Taken My Feet, Streets of Derry, Short Life