Following last year's covers album, Bright Sunny South, Vermont-born fiddler/banjoist/ singer-songwriter Sam Amidon (and Mr Beth Orton, to boot) this time reaches back through the decades to refashion traditional folk songs gathered from disparate sources. That he has done so in the company of experimental jazz guitarist, Bill Frisell, and other similarly- minded musicians means that we are treated to something rather more compelling than usual renditions of old folk songs. Irish (Pat do this, Pat do That), English (Maid Lamenting) and American ballads (Doc Watson's eerie, tender Your Long Journey) are delivered equal parts authentic and atonal, with Frisell's delicate, febrile guitar work in particular lifting the songs into a contemporary urban setting. samamidon.com