When: 7.30pm on Saturday 19 March 2022
Where: The Kings Arms, 11 Bloom Street, Salford M3 6AN

PLEASE NOTE: This show has been postponed until March 2022. All other details are the same, and original tickets remain valid. 

We’re delighted to be bringing Sam Amidon to the Kings Arms!

Sam Amidon’s self-titled album is out now Nonesuch Records. ‘A fine showcase for Amidon’s studio experimentation,’ says Rolling Stone, the album ‘incorporates elements of spacious, echoing ambient electronic music to complement Amidon’s warm vocals, reminiscent of Nick Drake and Arthur Russell.’

The new album, which Amidon considers the fullest realisation to date of his artistic vision, comprises his radical reworkings of nine mostly traditional folk songs, performed with his band of longtime friends and collaborators. Amidon produced the record, applying the sonic universe of his 2017 The Following Mountain to these beloved tunes, many of which he first learned as a child. Pretty Polly, for example, was one of the first traditional tunes he learned to play, and Time Has Made a Change is a song that his parents – singers who were on the 1977 Nonesuch recording?Rivers of Delight with the Word of Mouth Chorus – sang around the house when he was young.

Amidon and his frequent band?of multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily and drummer Chris Vatalaro were joined in the studio by Belgian guitarist Bert Cools (who played on his last EP), as well as Amidon’s wife, Beth Orton, who adds vocals on three songs. Acoustic bassist Ruth Goller and saxophonist and labelmate Sam Gendel also play on the album, which was mixed by Leo Abrahams.?Sam Amidon was mostly recorded live in the studio. Amidon arranged the songs, which are traditional tunes, with the exception of Taj Mahal’s Light Rain Blues, Harkins Frye’s Time Has Made a Change, and Hallelujah, which is an 1835 William Walker shape-note tune using earlier words by Charles Wesley, found in the Sacred Harp collection of early American folk-hymns.

Sam Amidon is Amidon’s fifth recording on Nonesuch and follows the 2019 EP Fatal Flower Garden (A Tribute to Harry Smith). Additional recordings include his 2017 album The Following Mountain and Kronos Quartet’s Folk Songs the same year, on which he was a featured singer along with Rhiannon Giddens, Natalie Merchant, and Olivia Chaney; Lily-O in 2014; and his label debut, Bright Sunny South, in 2013.

Local support comes from Lindsay Munroe. London-born Munroe began life as a folk artist, playing open mics and small gigs around her adopted hometown of Manchester. Yet it eventually became clear that her ambitions were higher than that. Since her departure from an oppressive church and the end of a long-term relationship, she’s been on a journey of learning exactly who she is when she’s totally free. It’s encapsulated in 2021’s Softest Edge EP, an ode to exploring beyond all constricting boundaries, whether musical or personal.

This show is a co-promotion with Please Please You.

Buy tickets now. Tickets are available from WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

Attend on: Facebook