Sam Amidon, shares a new track off his forthcoming album Salt River, “Friends and Neighbors,” Sam’s version of Ornette Coleman’s ode to communality. Percussionist Philippe Melanson and saxophonist Sam Gendel (louis Cole) slowly join in, playful bells and electronics and drums slipping around the recording of their dinnertime conversation. Gendel plays a long solo on the sarune bolon. At the end, they all sing together, chanting out Coleman’s credo—“Friends and neighbors, that’s where it’s at,” and so on—like they’re gathered around a digital campfire. It’s a beautiful snapshot from a record of astounding possibility, where past and future brush side by side in a present of friendship and exploration.

Now based in London, Amidon 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 re-contextualize 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 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.”

Amidon has also previously collaborated with the likes of The National, The Britten Sinfonia, Beth Orton, Lonnie Holley, Marc Ribot, the Kronos Quartet and The Blind Boys of Alabama, among many more.

Sam Amidon
Salt River
Track List

1 – Oldenfjord (originally by Grey Larsen)
2 – Three Five (originally traditional hymn Old Churchyard)
3 – Big Sky (originally by Lou Reed)
4 – Tavern (originally traditional American fiddle tune Salt River
5- Golden Willow Tree (originally from Appalachian ballad tradition)
6 – I’m On My Journey Home (originally from shape note singing tradition)
7 – Ask The Elephant (originally by Yoko Ono)
8 – Cusseta (originally from shape note singing tradition)
9 – Friends And Neighbours (originally by Ornette Coleman)
10 – Never (incorporates the fiddle tune “Her Long Hair Flowing Down Her Back” composed by Junior Crehan)

Pre-order Salt River HERE