Welcome to the Amidons’ Website
About the Amidons
Peter
and Mary Alice Amidon are versatile and widely respected performing and teaching
artists who for the past twenty years have dedicated themselves to traditional
song, dance and storytelling.
Read more >>
“Your work points towards what is fun and important in life.”
-Chip Wood, Northeast Foundation for Children
New Music
Just Released
Sashay the Donut
Even More Dances for Just About Anybody
Edited by Peter and Mary Alice Amidon, Andy Davis and Mary Cay Brass.
Our third collection, designed to compliment Chimes of Dunkirk and Listen to the Mockingbird. A collection of 22 more dances that we have used successfully in classrooms and at community dances. Dance instructions are carefully worded with accompaning photos, diagrams and glossary. Includes longways, circles, contras, squares and scatter mixers. Companion CD features dance length recordings of appropriate music for the dances. Music captures the excitement of dancing to live music in a community dance setting. The two square dances include singing calls on the recording.
Book: $15.00
CD: $15.00
Sam Amidon: All is Well
2007, Sam Amidon
Sam Amidon's new album, produced by Iceland's Valgeir Sigurdsson, is a collaboration between Sam, Valgeir, and New York City composer Nico Muhly (see the feature article on Nico Muhly in the Feb 11-18 2008 New Yorker magazine). Sam sang a great selection of roots traditional American songs to his own guitar and banjo accompaniment, and then Nico arranged each of the songs for chamber orchestra. The result is an album of stunning beauty.
“With All Is Well, Sam Amidon has crafted a precious gem of a record, all in nuances and shades, with delicate overtones and airy harmonies. Sigurusson's production is light and subtle yet it gives these songs fantastic depth and contrast without ever overshadowing Amidon's delivery.”
—The Milk Factory
“A soaring and beautiful butterfly of an album, rich with tuneful wonder and epic song craft.”
—MusiqueMachine.com
CD: $15.00
The Keys to the Kingdom
2007, Mary Alice Amidon
With her son Sam Amidon as producer and 11 great back up musicians, Mary Alice Amidon, renowned Vermont folksinger and multi-instrumentalist (here heard on banjo, accordion, and piano as well as vocals), has stepped out on her own to make an album of songs old and new with many original compositions to add to the mix. Quite a bit of variety here, ranging from the up tempo old time feel with back up band, some wtih a bluesy jazz feel and some very tender, beautiful songs.
“I have been privileged to enjoy a life of performing and teaching children and adults, both with my husband Peter and my sons, Sam and Stefan now in their mid twenties. Since they were 4 and 7 years old we have sung and played music as a family, so it is with a delight that they are all playing on this album. I'm also excited to include here some very recently composed songs and tunes, on a creative roll in my midlife, so enjoy! This album represents a variety of music in my life, from gospel to old time, from my own original songs and tunes to traditional American and African American songs. I've enjoyed the opportunity to present this collection of songs as solo project for adults, stepping out a bit on my own.”
Sing Out magazine reviewed Keys to the Kingdom in their Winter 2008 issue (Vol. 51 #4) and wrote:
“Though the cover photo of her holding an open backed banjo might suggest that Amidon is a strictly old-time singer and instrumentalist, it won't be more than a few cuts into the disc before it becomes apparent that her music flows from a variety of sources—the arrangements across these seventeen tracks range from backwoods mountain music to some pretty jazzy stuff. The opening track, in fact, is a sweet version of iris DeMent's "Mama's Opry" that marks Amidon as a singer with a surprising depth and range. Much of the material on Keys to the Kingdom is traditional ("Warfare", "Sittin' on Top of the World" the title track), but in addition to DeMent she takes on the likes of Tom Waits ("Grapefruit Moon") with good results. Much of the disc,though, consists of original Amidon tunes like "Ransom and Emily" inspired by a gravestone in a Vermont churchyard, and they are uniformly intelligent and compelling songs. "
"Amidon's voice is clear, direct and at times sharp as a knife. It's always risky to employ the "cheap reviewer's trick of drawing comparisons to other voices (often more famous and commercially successful without implying "sounds just like" but Amidon is more than pleasantly reminiscent of the likes of Mary McCaslin and Debby McClatchy, and at times sounds a whole lot like what Carly Simon would sound like as a traditional singer."
Beatitudes - Amidon Choral Arrangements
2006
These 25 four-part (SATB) arrangements are a reflection of the riches of harmony singing the Amidons have been immersed in for 30 years: Sacred Harp singing, singing tours with the Northern Harmony Chorus, church choir singing and directing, gospel sings at festivals, leading adult harmony singing camps, performing with the Amidon family quartet, and singing with friends. Many of these arrangements are being sung by community, church, hospice and school choirs on both sides of the Atlantic.
Beatitudes - the book
$30
Includes written arrangements of a wide range of sacred and secular songs including arrangements of old American hymns, Christmas and Easter anthems, African American spirituals and gospel, and three original compositions by the Amidons. Most are a cappella SATB; a few are SATB with piano accompaniment. The book includes performance notes on all the songs, and short essays on some of the traditions and organizations that have influenced the Amidons music. "Your original pieces and arrangements of traditional songs are so tastefully done and Exactly what I've been looking for. This book is a gem." - Yona Yellin - Music Director at College Street Congregational Church in Burlington, Vermont.
Beatitudes - the CD
$15
Thirty singers from several of the Amidons' singing communities: church, Sacred Harp, Northern Harmony, and more, spent a long autumn weekend rehearsing, and then a long winter weekend recording most of the songs on this album. Peter gathered an octet of remarkable singers a couple years later to finish up the recordings. "The arrangements are absolutely beautiful and the performances are stunning." -John Feierabend, Hartt School of Music, West Hartford, Connecticut.
Angels Hovering Round: Songs for Hospice and Healing
2006. A cappella 4 part (SATB) and 3 part (SAT) pieces performed by the Hallowell singers. Mary Cay Brass and Peter Amidon music directors.
“What could be more lovely at the end of life than being surrounded by the voices of angels in harmony?
We recorded some of our favorite hospice and healing songs in hopes of spreading this ministry to other
communities. In the spirit of sharing what we love, we hope it reaches all who wish to know the
healing effects singing has on the soul.”
—Kathy Leo, Hallowell founder