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Amidon Music
The Faerie's Gift: Songs for Children
2005. Peter, Mary Alice and Sam Amidon, Pete Sutherland, Ron Kelley
We made our first children's album of songs quite by accident in 1984, when our friends Connie Woodberry and Carl Hirth were taking a trip to Thailand and requested a cassette for their two children to listen to on the journey. We made a recording of it in our living room with a hand held tape recorder. When they returned they saidd we needed to do this for other parents. The Faerie's Gift includes two of our original settings of poems, our firest recordd story and songs by Elvis Presley and Louis Armstrong. Here are songs of tenderness, walking in each other's shoes and celebrating our wonderful world. Though it's an album for children, we think all our music friends will find much to delight in here.
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.
Hymns & Ballads
1999. Amidons and friends
Hymns & Ballads is an album of the Amidons' favorites (shape note hymns, gospel from both black and white singing traditions, American and English ballads, and poems set to music by Mary Alice) in a variety of settings:
Peter and Mary Alice's distinctively strong duo harmonies; the Amidon quartet that now includes Sam's tenor that is a cross between Dock Boggs and Mike Waterson and Stefan's profoundly deep bass; the Amidon/Armstrong Septet where the Amidon four are joined by the extraordinary singing family of Jennifer Armstrong and her two daughters Suzannah and Georgia Rose; and one Sydney Carter gem where Peter and Mary Alice are joined by Margaret Dale and Tony Barrand.
" It is wonderful, inspiring, moving, something I will doubtless listen to over and over again."
"I think it's your best so far."
CD: $15.00
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
$15.00
Songs for the Singing Family
1995. Mary Alice Amidon
Mary Alice recorded this album of songs for family and classroom singing. These are great songs for Kindergarten through fourth grade.
CD: $15.00
All I Really Need: Songs for Children
1988
The Amidons' classic collection of great songs for singing in school.
CD: $15.00
Teaching Kindergarten (1992)
2 CD set with accompanying lyrics to a wealth of thematic songs for the whole Kindergarten year.
CDs & Lyrics: $25.00
I'll Never Forget
1993. The Amidons
“Some of the most musical listening and singing along I've experienced in
years. Everyone should add this superb recording to their collection.”
—Bill Spence of the Old Songs Festival
Simply the Amidons' favorite songs, secular and sacred, sung by Peter, Mary Alice along with Sam and Stefan when they were sopranos.
CD: $15.00
This Pretty Planet: Songs for the Earth
1990. The Amidons and the Brattleboro Children's Choir
Track List >>
Temporarily out of stock. We are reording. We expect
them by sometime in July.
The Amidons are joined by Peter's Brattleboro Music Center Children's Choir singing a wide range of songs honoring the earth.
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
Sam Amidon: But This Chicken Proved False Hearted
2007, Sam Amidon
One would not expect some of the best modern American folk music being made today to be coming out of Harlem, NY. Yet here we have it, Samamidon's But This Chicken Proved Falsehearted. Samamidon is a collaboration between Sam Amidon (Stars Like Fleas, Doveman, Nico Muhly) and Thomas Bartlett (Doveman, Chocolate Genius, Elysian Fields). On the album, the two gather their favorite Appalachian standards and invigorate them with a modern spirit, striking a delicate balance between straightforward folk and experimental atmospheres.
This is an album filled with obscure songs from the American roots canon, drawing from the more untapped portions of Harry Smith and Alan Lomax's field recordings. It is obvious that Samamidon have put in a great deal of time finding hidden gems- sort of a folk equivalent to hip-hop's crate-digging. When these two men lay hands on these songs, though, they become much more than just retreads of relics- Sam and Thomas own them.
Sam is Peter and Mary Alice Amidon's elder son. Find out more about Sam at http://www.samamidon.com
“the most interesting folk album of 2007.”
-Stylus magazine
“This is the great American folk album.”
—the nerve magazine
CD: $15.00
The Sweetback Sisters: Bang! EP
2007. The Sweetback Sisters.
The Sweetback Sisters sing hidden gems and honky-tonk classics from the golden age of country music. The band, which features Stefan Amidon on drums, rose out of a mutual love of good ol' honky-tonk music and has been spreading that love around the eastern United States since June 2006. Zara Bode and Emily Miller front the ensemble with (surrogate) sister harmonies reminiscent of the 1950s. You can find out more about them at www.thesweetbacksisters.com