Sam Amidon: 'I went with my family pretty much to find Tommy Peoples'
Sam Amidon plays in Dublin and Clonakilty.
Folk singer Sam Amidon is delighted to hear Bruce Springsteen is playing Ireland the same week he’s in the country for a run of shows.
“Tell him to give me a shout!,” he jokes. “Maybe he will stick around and come to the Grand Social.”
Amidon admires Springsteen for his honesty and magnetism. The appreciation flows both ways: in 2017 Springsteen listed Amidon as one of his favourite artists. He’s just one among many fans of Amidon’s home-spun, old-timey folk. The Vermont musician has toured with Glen Hansard, duetted with Bon Iver – and, for good measure – is married to singer Beth Orton, with whom he lives in London.
Amidon also has a long-running affection for Ireland, to which he returns for those gigs at the Grand Social Dublin and DeBarra’s Folk Club Clonakilty. He was raised in a “hippy” enclave in the northeastern United States, and as a teenager, became obsessed with the Donegal fiddle player, Tommy Peoples, who played with the Bothy Band and is credited with helping preserve the distinct East Donegal school of fiddle playing.
“I grew up in Vermont, and there's a lot of folk music,” says Amidon. “I was really into it. There's a New England fiddle style which is its own thing and is great. But I was drawn to the Irish tunes. From around 12, I was obsessed.”
“Obsessed” is the word. He badgered his parents to take him to Ireland so he could track down Peoples. And they did exactly that.
“He was a life-changing musical influence on me. The first time I went to Ireland I was 15 and I went with my family pretty much to find Tommy. We went around the West Coast and asked at the pubs where he played. The first session, the guitar player was late. It was just Tommy and I for the first hour. I was in heaven.”
Amidon also has a connection to West Cork, to which he returns for his show at DeBarra’s in Clonakilty. As a teenager, he became a huge fan of Jimi Hendrix and was intrigued to discover the bassist with the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Noel Redding, lived for many years in the town.
“Jimi Hendrix was the first non-fiddle player I truly loved. It took me years to learn how to listen to other kinds of music. At home we listened to different kinds of folk music.
"But then, my dad bought me Bitch’s Brew by Miles Davis, which has since become a favourite. When I first put it on, I couldn’t really ‘hear’ it. It physically didn’t sound like anything. The first thing to me that sounded like ‘something’ was Jimi Hendrix: all of it. His sound was beautiful and deep and gentle – and loud, at the same time.”
He was vaguely aware of the Cork connection to Hendrix when he went to Clonakilty for the first time in 2009. By coincidence, his upcoming gig in Clonakilty is on May 11 – the 20th anniversary of Redding passing away.
It won’t be the first time he has marked Redding’s legacy. In 2020, he paid tribute with the song 'The Ballad Of Jimi', co-written with Eamon O’Leary of New York-based Irish trad ensemble the Murphy Beds. The tune is an earthy trad number, which recasts Hendrix and his ensemble as folk outlaws. “Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell ready to play/ perhaps we’ll give Hey Joe a run-through today.”
“This Irish tour is 14 years to the week of my first Irish tour, of my own music,” says Amidon. “I came in May 2009. I think the first show I did was in DeBarras. I’m in this beautiful pub. I got in early because I’m taking buses, with my guitar on my back."
He leans forward, warming to the tale. “I got in around midday. They gave me a toastie – I was hungry. I see this big bass on the wall. Slowly, I pieced it all together about Noel Redding. It’s been always great to go there to meet people who played with Noel… To hear about the parties they’ve had, Mitch Mitchell [Hendrix's drummer] coming around and everything. It’s just beautiful.”
Amidon also recently narrated the audiobook of Bill Frisell: Beautiful Dreamer, an autobiography of the jazz guitarist by Cork-based writer Philip Watson. And while in West Cork he hopes to connect with his West Cork-resident friend, Cloud Atlas author David Mitchell, with whom he has collaborated on podcasts and live events.
“David’s wonderful. I haven’t had an album out in a little while. In 2022, I self-published a pamphlet. It’s called the Unfinished Ballad. It’s a booklet-length dialogue between David and myself about music. It was a slow correspondence through the various lockdowns. We did one email a month back and forth, tracing our lives musically – through David’s very creative way of thinking about the universe, which is a joy. Hopefully, he’ll come and hang out at the gig.”
Bruce Springsteen and David Mitchell would make for quite a guestlist. However is in attendance, the real star will be Amidon’s songs, fuelled by his passion for folk and by the shared connection between the green hills of Vermont and the wild landscapes of West Cork.
- Sam Amidon plays Grand Social Dublin, Wednesday, May 10, DeBarra’s Clonakilty Thursday, May 11
