Post-A-Day Week: It’s not often over a weekend that I’ll be sent enough songs to make up a week of posts. So, this week, I’ve decided to put up a post a day, as opposed to lumping them all into one confusing mess, as I am wont to do.
Sam Amidon, aka Samamidon, is a product of the quintessential folk-band family, the Amidons. And on this track, “Saro”, Sam proves that he certainly deserves a place in the First Family of Folk.
Saro, like the majority of the songs on Samamidon’s upcoming new album, “All Is Well
”, is actually a retelling of a traditional folk song, “Pretty Saro”. There are countless covers of this song, performed by such great names and Judy Collins, Bert Jansch, and Doc Watson, among others; Samamidon’s version is the most haunting and beautiful I have heard.
Although the song has been set with different melodies, and different characters, and even in different times – some songs start off in 1749, others in 1849 – the central story remains the same: An immigrant, alone and flailing in a strange country, misses his true love back home.
This version by Sam is sung in a resigned, yet achingly beautiful voice, and is accompanied by composer-friend, Nico Mulhy’s amazing string and wood instrument arrangements.
Below I’ve included both the music video for the single, “Saro”, and, of course, the song itself.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw7pZvQPvcg]
Listen: Samamidon – Saro
