The Following Mountain

For those Amidon fans still swooning over the gentle folksiness of his previous five albums, The Following Mountain may come as an unsettling surprise as Amidon's new direction finds him wandering far down the trail into free-jazz wigginess. Never fear – this accomplished American folk singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist is still picking banjo and guitar, as well as fiddling and letting his vocals go slightly and endearingly hoarse at the end of many a line. He also continues to work with regular collaborator Shahzad Ismaily (Hammond organ, Moog Rogue and bass). But what's almost shockingly new is Amidon's eclectic choice of other collaborators – Jimi Hendrix veteran Juma Sultan on percussion, and 1960s free-jazz drummer Milford Graves, plus saxophonist Sam Gendel, and Chris Vatalaro's flutes and drums.
As a result, rather than reworking traditional Appalachian folk songs, Amidon here presents nine original compositions with a strong emphasis on improvisation, with limited use of traditional sources in some lyrics. Graves' wild, unfettered battering of skins and cymbals on ‘Ghosts’ will make the album's relatively warm single ‘Juma Mountain’ seem like a quiet retreat from the bold ‘walk through the thickets of the imagination’ that inspired this radical departure.