Review by Geoff Jenke
Sam Amidon is a multi instrumental, experimental folk artist and singer hailing from the U.S.A. In the past Amidon has released five albums of reworked traditional folk songs but The Following Mountain is his first wholly original album. The album was recorded in Brooklyn USA as well as in London.
The album starts with the beautiful, almost acoustic Fortune. Amidon’s voice comes to the fore and the guitar work simple but yet amazing.
Next up is Ghosts and things go a bit wrong here. Not sure what he is trying to achieve with the song as it is neither jazz nor rock. It is experimental at best, noise at worse.
Thankfully things settle down after Ghosts with more lovely acoustic numbers in Juma Mountan, Another One Gone and Gendel In 5. Guitar, violin and organ interacting beautifully.
However Sam Amidon does like to push boundaries and challenge the listener and nowhere is this more so than in the closing 12 minute jazz free form of April. It is a journey way beyond what Ghosts gave us in track 2. Amidon has said “The Following Mountain is a walk through the thicket of my imagination” Just not sure where his imagination was at when recording April. At 12 minutes, it certainly tests one’s endurance.
The album is not perfect but between the songs Ghost and April there is much to like. Amidon is an extremely talented man and uses some extremely talented musicians to back him. The Following Mountain is unpredictable. When listening to it you certainly have no idea what the next track is going to be like. That in itself can be a sign of a great album. However in this case it is a good album, not a great album. That is still to come from Sam Amidon.
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