Watch Sam Amidon's Tiny Desk Concert on NPR

WATCH SAM AMIDON’S TINY DESK CONCERT ON NPR

SEE AMIDON IN CONCERT IN CHICAGO, ANN ARBOR AND TORONTO

HEAR AMIDON’S LILY-O, OUT NOW ON NONESUCH RECORDS
 

Singer, string-instrumentalist and traditional song re-interpreter Sam Amidon recently visited NPR to record a Tiny Desk Concert. Free-jazz guitarist Bill Frisell and bassist/percussionist Shahzad Ismaily, both of whom are featured on Amidon’s acclaimed new Nonesuch Records release Lily-O, joined Amidon for the taping. Watch the three-song performance here and see why the New York Observer recently called Amidon the “spokesman for the new, weird America.”

Amidon performs two shows this week in Chicago on Dec. 6 and 7, followed by concerts in Ann Arbor at The Ark on Dec. 8 and in Toronto at The Drake Hotel on Dec. 10. Amidon’s Chicago concerts include an opening spot on the second night of Wilco’s sold-out residency at the Riviera Theatre (Dec. 6) and a concert at The Hideout (Dec. 7). Amidon will support Sharon Van Etten on select UK dates in 2015. (Full tour schedule follows).

On Lily-O, Amidon continues to re-work mostly traditional songs into something completely new and distinctively his own. Recorded in Iceland with producer Valgeir Sigurðsson, Lily-O continues to earn critical praise, heralded recently by the Chicago Reader as “terrific” and “hauntingly beautiful” by the New York Times.