Download This! Sam Amidon's "How Come That Blood"
How Come That Blood is the first single released from Sam Amidon’s upcoming full-length album I See The Sign. The song is produced by Valgeir Sigurðsson (Björk, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Kronos Quartet) and arranged by Bedroom Community label-mate and fellow Vermont native Nico Muhly (Grizzly Bear, The National, Antony and the Johnsons) along with Shahzad Ismaily - talk about having all the right friends. The single captures exactly what makes Amidon not only a unique musician but an important one.
How Come That Blood, as well as most Amidon tunes, melds traditional American folk music with contemporary classical composition, and the result is nowhere near as strange as the joining of those two may sound. Though Amidon didn’t write this song (it’s a reworking of a traditional ballad), he unlocks its soul, while an identifiably Muhly arrangement adds the modern compositional spin. It is as avant-garde, anxious and pointillated as work from other contemporary composers, such as Germany’s Hauschka. But Amidon’s collected voice, emotional lyrics - the song is a conversation with the narrator’s mother; as she asks him over and over “How come that blood?” he reveals that he’ll never be home again - and acoustic instrumentation keep the composition rooted in American rural history.
Many folk/rock musicians may feel content to cover Bob Dylan and call it a day, but Amidon presses equally back and forward, uncovering our collected past and presenting what is old and often glossed over in pioneering ways. It’s American tradition and it’s contemporary classical. And if feels just as significant as both.
Listen to the track here.
