Sam Amidon

As an interpreter of folk songs, Sam Amidon is as fearless as they come. His repertoire, plucked largely from the kitchens and front porches of Appalachia and his native Vermont, maintains a fingerpicked core, updated with his own melodic phrasing and subtly shifting rhythms. But the real reinvention is in Amidon’s delivery: plainspoken vocals that dryly turn songs filled with assumptions about morality and faith into modern provocations. Here, he performs with masterful jazz guitarist Bill Frisell and multi-instrumentalist mainstay Shahzad Ismaily behind a new disc, Lily-O. Amidon opens for Wilco at the Riv the previous evening.